About my art Archives - Page 9 of 10 - P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell

Further Evidence …

Posted on May 21, 2014 by SMay 26, 2014

Just in case anyone needs this, I seem to have further evidence that I am very competitive at times. I had not really planned to submit anything to the upcoming art show at Northwind Arts Center. It has the theme: Fins, Feather, Fur. This did not inspire me, or fit any of my more recent work.

But the theme did inspire someone else: Maureen! My art teacher/guru/facilitator rarely enters shows, but she was fired up to enter this one, and working hard. Next thing I know, I am desperately working too, on new clay, wax & driftwood sculptures. Good grief!

I have one piece, Wanting to be Needed (see previous post), completed, and another called Looking for a Place, well in hand! My power tools & construction skills are proving useful, and I am having fun.

After many more crazy fun hours of work, I have a plan for, and much of the work complete for the interior of this found box. The hardest part may be the display: I want the box open, but the lid up in the air, not just sitting next to it. I have three sticks of wood, representing tree trunks, that I should be able to mount the lid on more permanently.

This is my work.

Posted on May 13, 2014 by SFebruary 22, 2018

When I make my funky yard art it will seem as if I am playing, wasting time, or pursuing an odd obsession.

All of this may be true, but beyond that this is my work.

Nice ambiguity in the English grammar here, of course. Both meanings are good. My new screening panel is not a work of art or even a creation that I am especially proud of. It will soon be a fine privacy screen built from (mostly free) stuff, and I will enjoy the eccentric nature of this “fence” panel, and the visual balance I am creating here.

But my real intention with the above statement is to say that doing this is not mere play, or a way to waste time. I am doing the work I need to do in order to make art. This outdoor shaping, building and assembling serves to energize me, enhance my creativity, and train me to see and make on a larger scale and in three dimensions.

My seemingly casual assemblies of found objects and scrap often do serve useful purposes; they keep out deer, screen & anchor my trash cans, etc. But the work is as much about building my aesthetic, stimulating my creativity, and keeping me happily engrossed in making art!

Is it about Art or the Perfection of the Print?

Posted on May 3, 2014 by SMay 6, 2014

Or Why I will never be a Printmaker

Yesterday was another fun day at the print shop (Corvidae Press), but my results are not quite as pleasing as on my previous poly litho printmaking attempts.

I made two new plates, one directly from an original pencil drawing transferred to the polyester plate using a laser copier. The other plate is based on two original pencil drawings that I combined digitally in Corel’s PaintshopPro software, after scanning them. However I then drew further onto an inkjet print of this new piece before making a laser copy directly onto the polyester plate material.

So I printed from both of these two new laser toner plates, but I never quite got the darks I wanted on these. Laser toner definitely requires more charging than ballpoint pen on the poly plate, and I may not have used quite enough ink either. I printed only a few prints, none quite satisfactory as is. Almost true to the original drawings, though. My Gamblin Portland Black ink looks alot like graphite pencil in these prints.

But it will be quite easy to touch these up with colored pencil to get a bit more contrast, and color can be added in several different ways. Eventually I am sure that I will use all of these prints. And I expect that even the faintest, least satisfactory prints will become very satisfying artworks.

For me it is not about perfecting the craft of printmaking, even though I certainly enjoy and appreciate excellent printmaking! I am primarily interested in a desirable end result, and in enjoying the process of getting there. So that means I won’t struggle endlessly for perfect registration or creating the perfect plate. After all, once you have perfect printmaking technique you simply have a means of duplicating your fine work, and I don’t need that.

Soft World, two pass print

So I am an artist who used printmaking, but I will never really be a printmaker! The print showing a circle inside a circle, with lots of detail (Through a Lens 🙂 has grey colored pencil and water soluble graphite added to increase the contrast. The double “brain” image has had the background digitally “cleaned” of fingerprints & smudges!

Learning a bit more about poly litho printmaking

Posted on April 20, 2014 by SJune 1, 2015

I have been print a bit (and trying to print a bit more) using polyester lithography, or poly litho. Some lessons learned (beyondthe basic process):

start with a good plate! I don’t know the sources of the plates I have, so no recommendations yet. But if you are struggling, and you have a new brand of plate, you may be wasting your time: not all poly litho plates are equal!
keep your plates and your hands (or gloves if you use them) very clean! Once a plate gets greasy & picks up ink where it should not, it will be hard to clean! It may be best to cut your losses and start over: thorough cleaning will likely remove some or all of your image!
keep it simple until you know you have good plate material and understand your wetting solution, etc. (hint: using multiple media types for your drawing is not keeping it simple)
using china marker and other greasy media to create your image requires more care if you want clean prints: they may smear, generate fingerprints, etc.
“permanent” markers aren’t. I find they don’t stand up well to plate cleaning. And they vary by color and manufacturer.
editions are best run all at once, so start first thing in the morning!
if the ink seems to be building up a little after several prints, run a cleaning print directly on to damp newsprint before the next inking.
remember you probably need to “charge” your plate: lots of inking for the first 2 prints, and those may be discards (or a good basis of further work).
it takes longer to “charge” some materials: ballpoint does not seem to require much or any charging, if you ink the plate very thoroughly for the first print.
mixing materials makes charging & inking trickier. Ballpoint picks up the ink so well, but laser toner needs more work, as does sharpie. The contrast is not always desirable.
Ballpoint makes very clear distinct lines that don’t result in much bridging. It is useful to know this if you are trying to work back in to an existing plate done with laser toner or other materials: the ballpoint lines will stand out distinctly on your prints unless you work to integrate it.
Ballpoint pen is my current favorite: it is durable, needs little charging, and is OK to draw with (I don’t like drawing with sharpies!).
Heat your prepared plate before using: this won’t hurt and may help set the image. I generally use a hairdrier on high for 2-3 minutes holding if very close and moving it slowly around the plate (don’t do this on a glass surface!!).
A smoother paper will display fine lines & detail better (Duh!) I am liking Arches 88 silkscreen paper at the moment!
It may be helpful to use a larger thin plexi plate on the press bed under your poly plate: this will help you set the press pressure. Use one the same size if you want a platemark…
And if you are a multimedia artist, you can always tranform those printing failures into artistic successes somehow!

These are two different prints from a new laser copier plate, not yet fully charged. Note the unevenness of the inking! I printed over the poly litho prints with a transparent water based ink rolled very thinly on a plexi plate. Tthe ballpoint pen lines stand out clearly visible & different: I added rather too quickly to the laser copy plate. I will need to do more work to integrate them with the piece and make it work!

And in the “never done” department:

Posted on April 17, 2014 by SJanuary 31, 2015

This piece has been on the easel, unfinished, for quite some time! I have lightened, darkened, subdued, highlighted, added, and taken away.

The last image on the right is the latest. Among other things, I added the connections that encompass the bones and reach below ground. I have also and darkened (or perhaps re-darkened) the mummy/bones.

Note that it is hard to assess the changes online with the small images scanned & adjusted slightly differently… I have to scan this work in four sections, piece them together, and try to adjust to provide truer colors & contrast. It is tricky!

Not sure where it will end!

“I had not thought death had undone so many.”
The Wasteland, T.S. Eliot

Printing a poly-litho plate drawn with ballpoint pen

Posted on April 15, 2014 by SApril 18, 2014

After hours of struggling with a recalcitrant poly-litho plate first drawn with sharpie (then cleaned & redrawn with ballpoint) it is a treat to work with another plate (shown above left) that inks cleanly! It gives me hope.

I will abandon the original Circles plate (shown in an earlier post), and perhaps create a new plate based on that design. Above you can see the a plate that works (shown at left), one print from this as scanned, plus one at right digitally enhanced for darker stronger lines. I have already added more to this plate for the next print round!

But here the fine point ballpoint lines are so delicate and the prints lack impact and strength. Much more work is needed!

More work, and more fun

Posted on March 5, 2014 by SMarch 5, 2014

WIth digital mods, rescanned and w/colored & graphite pencil added

Watercolor Rocks II draft 5

Sometimes I work, and work and wonder “why?” I must suppose this angst is just the human condition. And working does keep me off the streets (by keeping my alcohol consumption down a bit). And, in truth, I crave all kinds of impossible things: rocks, bones, etc. that can only be imagined, so I must create them myself… Mind you I don’t ever reach the perfection of the vision, but again, that is the human condition.

Quote of the Day (said about my work!)

Posted on February 24, 2014 by SFebruary 25, 2014

They All Came

On Monday I received a wonderful, unsolicited comment / compliment from a fellow artist, about this work, when I left it at Northwind Arts Center for juror review:

“that is a very powerful piece”

I couldn’t ask for a better compliment: so sincere, and so satisfying! I am happy!

I certainly hope the juror agrees! If so, this will be on exhibit in March in the show “Earth Matters”.

Color

Posted on February 24, 2014 by SFebruary 24, 2014

I start with drawing, and line, and shading.

I love color: delicate, subtle, deep, vivid, intense, seductive colors!

But using color effectively in my art does not come naturally or easily for me. I have to enforce great restraint, or I will run amok with color, and lose all sense of the whole work.

I have never really practised or trained using a limited color palette, or had any patience what so ever with color theory. As with all work, I play and experiment, and use whatever is to hand and feels right. Of course this does not always have a satisfactory result!

However working by the rules, while impressive and effective, is often dull, even stultifying. Why create art without pleasure?

And all my mistakes will, I hope, inform my next work without constraining me in a tedious way.

Alternate version of Bones Laid Out, with watercolor, digital extended

I like to think that, anyway!

Thinking about … ambiguity

Posted on February 15, 2014 by SApril 18, 2014

While considering entering a new juried show, I reviewed paintings by the show juror, Michael Paul Miller. His oil paintings are stunning: his subjects are attention getting and his technique is exquisite. All his work shown at Saatchi online is gorgeous & very impressive. The work is described as post-modern realism, dark and often depicting an environmental apocalypse.

I was much intimidated! But I sent the link to a friend, along with the show statement and 3 works I am considering submitting (advice solicited re: frames). This was her response:

The juror’s work does not intrigue me at all. It is so obviously and literally and constantly dark. But I think he would learn from your work. Your work is not propaganda from either the light or the dark side.

Wow, what a compliment! My work does not have the meticulous technique (and never will). But perhaps I don’t need to be intimidated by that fact. Although I am guessing that Miller’s gorgeous paint work, with a clear and assertive message & subject matterwork, will always appeal to more people than my ambiguous messages, my work does allows the viewer room to create an individual interpretation and response.

It is so not easy! I certainly prefer to think that my doubts, agonizing, reworks and difficulties make my art better. And that the end result is worth something to others, not just to me. Self-doubt hovers in the wings every step of the way, and I waver between triumphant satisfaction and complete confusion: do I “waste” my time? Well, no I do please myself, but I want a bit more than that! Click on the image to view all three possible entries for this next juried show.

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell

Creating my artwork, work in progress & new work.

Category Archives: About my art