DAY-TRIP TO IMMA

Took a little trip to IMMA yesterday to see the Graphic Studio 50 years exhibition. As it was all print editions, I was in my element, although did compound my blog entry below, as not one single lino-cut appeared, and even more disappointing, only one woodcut; if  you were new to printmaking you might only think there were 3 techniques. Ah well, it was still an interesting show, some really great pieces. I did almost bankrupt myself and walk away with a piece... thankfully my good friend dragged me away before I had a chance to do anything really silly.

There was also a piece my Norah McGuiness. Lithographs, I have been told will make a grown man cry, and to see this level of detail... jeese, I would almost be tempted to cut off my right hand to be able to do half of what she did... I'd even cut off my right hand to own a piece.

Apart from the Graphic Studio exhibition, we saw The Moderns - some Robert Ballagh Pop Art was ... pop-arty, you know big and bold-more substantial to the American pop-arts; for me it was the Mainie Jellet and Evie Hone paintings on the upper levels that were the stand-outs (can't remember which one is which... one is Mainie Jennett anyway... and the other one is Evie Hone). A lot of Picasso influence in there, but also very religious - you can really tell they were female painters, there's a delicacy that counterbalances the harder cubist elements - me likey! Definitely worth a look, it's just seems there's a lack of energy and cohesion to the place. It would be nice to walk into IMMA and feel like you were going somewhere really special - either they are down-playing the exhibition (why?), or there really is a depression setting in (having said that, I haven't been to IMMA for several years, and my regular visits have been to the Tate Modern)... could this be the start of the downturn effecting the arts... I hope not, and hopefully it's just a short-term blip.

A (VERY) Brief History of Lino Printing

Lino pinting is often seen as the also-ran to woodcuts in the printing world – you don’t see very many artists using the technique. It might have something to do with it’s history… so here goes, a brief history of lino printing:

Early 1900’s, first used in Germany by a group of artists known as Die Brucke, cheap way to produce ‘woodcuts’, more accessible; during the 1st World War it was an easy way to produce anti-propoganda and protest posters/leaflets. So from early on it was seen as an economy product.

Many of us were introduced to it in school, returning home bearing bleeding postulous sores... I was enthusiastic.

I have mentioned before that I love lino, and it’s because of the accessibility,  but also because it is a pleasure to carve and because it is so adaptable. In order to sway the view of lino being an under-dog, I’d like to share with you some of my favourite lino printings, by non-other then Picasso, Matisse and Escher. Firstly Picasso, used lino a lot, and invented a method known as the reduction-print. I won’t bore you with the details, I’ll just show you the nice pictures (both above).

What I love about both Picasso and Matisse is that they used lino-printing to draw with - there's an ease and flow to the carving and image.

Finally, we have Escher, and as usual, we have a mathematically complex image (one that you have probably seen reproduced many times) – it’s incredible how prefectly all three have carved the lino plate… my hands are sore just looking at them.

Enjoy the pics, and if anyone has any favourites, lino or otherwise I’d love to hear it!

LINO TUTORIAL - STAGE 2

Right, so we've got all our materials, and we've made our image, and we've cut our image. The next step is to ink up your plate and to print your plate/image. Following on from Stage 1, step 1-3, what we need now is:

• the cut plate
• ink
• inking-up plate
• roller (or brush etc)
• paper/fabric surface to print on
• .. and the newspaper/old shirt to avoid tears and 'vanish' sessions

LINO CUTTING TUTORIAL, STAGE 2

Step 4

Take your inking-up plate (this could be the piece of glass/ acrylic/ thick acetate) and spread a small amount of ink on the area. You will now take your roller and roll out your ink, making sure there are no large 'blobby' bits - you are just looking for an even surface of ink on the roller.

Step 5

Place your lino plate on the newspaper/ brown paper and roll your roller over the plate, making sure you have even coverage of colour... believe it or not, rolling the ink on the inking-up area and on the plate takes a lot or practise, and there are specialist techniques used to get a professional print finish, but for now, just make sure you have even cover.

Step 6

Now for the exciting bit, the transferring of the image - place your inked-up plate centrally on a piece of paper the same size as you will print. Take the paper that you are printing onto, and line it up at one edge, carefully lower onto the plate, and smooth over quickly but lightly. 

Step 7

Take your baren/wooden spoon and place even coverage and pressure (quite a lot) onto the back of the page. 

Step 8

You can lift the edges up to see if it has printed well enough. Don't worry if your first go is quite faint - just ink up again and try again.

TIPS:

1. Clean clean clean.... that's one of the things about printmaking - you tend to have to be very clean (if not tidy) and fairly organised.
2. You can warm the plate before you start cutting to make it easier to cut into - I actually use a hot water bottle, but you could leave it in the sun/ on a radiator, or iron on the back of the lino.
3. Be REALLY careful with the lino tools - they are bloody sharp and because you are using a certain amount of pressure, it can sometimes, shoot into your hand - avoid that, it is sore. Don't let your kid go crazy or even near the tools... I will upload some child-friendly printing techniques in the future.
4. Sometimes a very faint print, or an 'incomplete' print can have a much nicer effect.

LINO TUTORIAL - STAGE 1

LINO TUTORIAL - STAGE 1

So I've been promising for a while that I would post up information on lino-cutting and printing, so here goes:

LINO CUTTING TUTORIAL, STAGE 1

Right, first things first, lino printing is a process called relief printmaking - basically, whatever you take (i.e. cut) away from the plate will not print on the paper/fabric/surface - in other words, the bits that are cut away, or the negative space will be the colour of the paper/fabric used, and anything left in 'relief' on the plate will hold the ink.

Materials needed:

• a roller (you could use a brush just to start you off)
• printing inks (you could also use poster paints, acrylic paints but they will dry very quickly, so it might be best to invest in one printing ink to see if it's for you)
• your printing plate - lino 
• Lino cutting tools
• an image/ drawing
• printing press (ha! bloody expensive too, so just use a wooden spoon for now, or a japanese hand baren)
• inking-up plate - somewhere to spread the ink, so a piece of glass (don't need to tell you to be careful!), acetate, acrylic.

Most of the above you can get for relatively cheap in any art shop, but for anything you can't get or can't afford, just improvise! Apart from the above, you'll need: Newspaper (it's messy) ; Apron/ old shirt.. anything to avoid messy ink splatters on your best clothes, and finally, printing paper (you could use copy paper to test) or fabric to print on.

Step 1:

You can either draw onto the plate directly with pencil or pen, or trace onto the plate using carbon paper - to do the carbon paper method, place the carbon paper ink side down onto the plate, place your drawing/image on top and draw over. NOTE: whatever image you put on your plate will come out as a mirror image, so you've been warned with words/ letters etc.

Step 2:

You have a plate with an image on it, so now you are ready to cut - you can either cut away everything around the image, or you can cut the actual drawing itself - experiment with this; both give very different effects. To keep it simple, we've just cut away the image/drawing.

Step 3:

Once you have cut away the lino that you want removed (what you want to remain 'paper colour') then you are ready to ink up.... which will follow in tutorial step 2... hopefully tomorrow!

LINO TUTORIAL - STAGE 2 

Welcome to the Printing Rooms!

Ok, so it's taken a little bit longer to get my ass in gear and start blogging information on the Printing Rooms, but better late then never!

First a little bit of information about the Printing Rooms: I wanted to create a business where customers could purchase limited edition works of art at a reasonable price - why? I have a degree in Art which I'm afraid has languished since graduating from college in 2003, and when I lost my latest job (long line of office-based blah blah) I decided now was the time to take the... printing press by the horns and start my own thing.  In fact, all the years of office work (some good, some baaaad have left me in a really good position to get cracking on this).

In a nutshell, I love printing - love the smell, the process, the inks, the lino, the paper - and I love interior design, and I want my business to work by offering products at a price that people will come back for and products that they want to have on their walls, so that I can continue to make. I love art but it can get a little 'heavy' at times. It's been nice to take a step back from that side of art to make stuff that I like, that I want to look at and to see on my walls.

Fine art printmaking shouldn't be confused with giclee prints etc - fine art printmaking is a much more specialised and creative craft: you are designing and carving a 'plate', inking up that plate, and then creating an edition of prints based on that plate - all handmade, carved and inked. Each edition of prints may take upwards of 1-2 weeks to create, from the idea, the plan, testing the plan, the transfer of the image, the carving, the testing, the re-carving, the inking etc etc; and each print from an edition is an original art work. It's a labour of love, people!!

So currently I am in the process of creating, carving and inking upwards of 20 different prints; and in the meantime I am putting together a website, so, all going to plan, my prints should be ready to sell.... soon... hopefully pre-Christmas, hopefully beginning of November, but more like mid-end November.

Keep an eye on the blog, as I will be posting up tutorials and information on printing.