another great afternoon experimenting in the studio………….

have been really enjoying doing these monoprints with encaustic, last year i saved up and bought myself an etching press, something i have wanted  and needed for a long time, coming across a second hand one seemed impossible as people seemed to keep them , but fortunately i came across one that had been sitting in somebody’s shed for 12 years and had never been used, it was at Perth about a 5 day drive from here, so picking it up wasn’t viable, so across the Nullabor Plain on a train it came and we picked it up from Sydney..Just having it in the studio is great, having the time to experiment with types of my printmaking without having to rush as somebody may also be waiting to use it such was the case whilst studying creative arts at uni, when you know that a class of people also need to use it within a specified time frame experimentation is pretty much out the window….ive always worked with intaglio (etching ) & relief printing but lately the freedom of playing with random one off prints has been great and i find it broadens and pushes the creative flow, i lke this work although it feels a little dark in colour, over the next week im thinking about doing a series of this style and putting them together to for one work….no rain today ,it was so cold and windy yesterday that we actually lit the fire, which is so bizzare for November in Australia..today i’ll get into the garden for a while and plant some more vegies……………….

monoprint/encaustic…reed inspiration

encaustic & ochre work in progress..

the ochre used in this work ( the red & yellow) comes from the Northern Territory of Australia, the same ochre that has been used by our indigenous aboriginals for over 40,000 years, i feel quite privlaged  to have a small amount…the photo doesn’t give the depth of colour justice though, combined with the lush texture of the encaustic i feel quite happy with the way this work is going…