Artistic Explorations: Visual Poetry (1)

My collaboration with writer and artist Elaine Reid recently resulted in co-facilitating a Visual Poetry workshop, as part of the Barn's community year-long project Flourish that she is leading. In the run up to the workshop we got together in my studio to go through the steps ourselves and create a few visual poems. Elaine already had experience with found poetry and making zentangle drawings around it but I hadn't. We would offer the participants a wide array of art materials to play with and before we could do that, we actually had to find out what would work best.

We copied a few pages of an old book onto heavy-weight mixed media paper, skim read the text without actually reading the content and circling the words that popped out.



Example of text for visual poem

We then worked with gesso (to push back the text that we didn't want to keep) and added acrylics, coloured pens, stencilling, stamping and collage material for the visual element of our found poem. I thoroughly enjoyed the experimental and subconscious process of it all!

Here are the visual poems I made in preparation for the workshop.

Visual poem with stencilling

Visual poem with collage

Visual poem with stamping and drawing

During the first half of the day, which was led by Elaine, they focussed on found poetry; skim reading, circling and trying to connect words and phrases in pencil.



Participants at work in the gallery of the Barn



Participants at work in the gallery of the Barn ©Elaine Reid 2017



Found poetry in action

Everyone would get three different pages and in just half an hour's time, the group created so many different poems from sometimes the exact same text!

The second half was led by me. We first showed them samples of our work so that they could get an idea what can be achieved.


Examples of our visual poems ©Elaine Reid 2017

Once I explained and showed them what you can do with the various art material I had brought along, it was time to play!

I brought a selection of art materials they could use



Using gesso and collage ©Elaine Reid 2017



Using a stencil to draw a shapes ©Elaine Reid 2017

Using various papers as collage ©Elaine Reid 2017



The page is now totally transformed into a visual poem ©Elaine Reid



One of the participants using pen and collage to erase text ©Elaine Reid 2017



This workshop was part of the community project Flourish ©Elaine Reid 2017

One of the visual poems a participant created ©Elaine Reid 2017



Another example of a visual poem created by a participant

Reading and hearing the feedback from all the participants afterwards I can say it was a huge success! Hopefully we can do it again next year. From 5-18 March 2018, these poems and many more will be displayed during a two-week Flourish exhibition.

Artistic Explorations: Intaglio Printmaking (5)

The short course exhibition looks wonderful and if you're in the area do have a look. Such a wide variety of works and of a high standard according to some of the visitors who I spoke today during the opening. I have to come back again this week because it was very busy and you chat more with fellow students than actually take time and space to take it all in.

I promised to show some of the prints I have been working on over the last few months during the Printmaking course. Each print is a combination of two layered prints. The first layer is from a copperplate that was etched with the use of hard ground (made from wax) and an etching tool. The second layer is from a copperplate that was etched by imprinting textures like fabrics and wallpaper in soft ground.

Both plates are sized 50 x 20 cm.
The hard ground was first put on a hot copperplate and then smoked. Once cooled off I drew my design by scraping away the hardened wax. The areas exposed were then bitten by the acid, creating an indentation in the plate.

Drawing on hardground plate with initial sketch in pencil above
©Fenfolio2016

Drawing on hardground plate ©Fenfolio2016

Detail of drawing on hardground plate with etching tool ©Fenfolio2016

For the other plate I put on a layer of soft ground wax and placed several fabrics like scrim, hessian and lace + scraps of old wallpaper on it. Then I ran it through the press, making an imprint in the wax. After I took off all the pieces of textures I placed the plate in the acid bath, checking every 10 minutes or so to make sure it wouldn't overdo it.
The images below show the result after it has been etched by the acid.

Etched softground copperplate ©Fenfolio2016

Detail of etched softground copperplate ©Fenfolio2016

And then it was time to start printing. First I tested the hard ground plate with sepia ink.

"Glen Dye hardground proof" ©Fenfolio2016

I also made a few proofs for the soft ground plate, inking up a la poupee. It was good to test each plate individually but I had to do both in one print to actually see whether they would complement eachother. Below is my first attempt. I was not happy because the textures were too much dominating, pushing the hard ground layer (sepia colour) to the background!

"Glen Dye Artist Proof" ©Fenfolio2016

My tutor was a great help and adviced me to add more extender to the ink, making it more dilute. I was also not happy with the harsh areas in the mountain (centre and right hand side). I used a scraper/burnishing tool (see first image on top) to level out the etched lines on the plate.

After spending many, many, many hours trying to get the inking right I think I have cracked it. Below are the few prints I'm happy with and the first one is now shown at the exhibition. All have chine collé added in the form of handwritten text dated appr. 1910 taken out of a notebook I received from my father who got it from his mother. I think it was written by a friend of one of our ancestors.

"Glen Dye I" ©Fenfolio2016

"Glen Dye I ", close-up ©Fenfolio2016

"Glen Dye I ", close-up ©Fenfolio2016

"Glen Dye II"  ©Fenfolio2016

"Glen Dye III" ©Fenfolio2016

"Glen Dye IV" ©Fenfolio2016

"Glen Dye V" ©Fenfolio2016

The coming months I will continue working with these plates as I would like to experiment more with other colour schemes and printmaking papers. Hopefully I will then have a few good prints I can show during my upcoming exhibitions later this year at Art Aboyne and North East Open Studios.

Artistic Explorations: Figurative Study (4)

The figurative study course is now almost coming to an end. Next week a selection of drawings, paintings, prints, jewellery, photography and fashion made by participants will be exhibited at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen.

Invitation exhibition Gray's School of Art

Apart from a few prints, which I will write about in a different post, these drawings will also be shown. I'm actually really pleased with them and I look forward hearing the comments from the visitors during the opening of the exhibition!

"Patched up", drawing in soft pastel on collage
©Fenfolio2016

"Radiance", drawing in soft pastel on Slate Murano paper
©Fenfolio2016

I also made many sketches in my sketchbook during the course but as this won't be exhibited I just share some here. These are Quink ink studies I created in a few minutes. I just love the way the ink reacts when diluted with water. The black colour suddenly reveals many other colours like blue and brown! Ink is also a great medium to work in quickly. It feels as if the brush dances on the paper and that's so liberating.

Sketch 1 in Quink ink ©Fenfolio2016

Sketch 2 in Quink ink ©Fenfolio2016

Sketch 3 in Quink ink ©Fenfolio2016

Sketch 4 in Quink ink ©Fenfolio2016

The sketches below were also made in a few minutes and were done in soft pastel pencils, a completely different medium. What I really like about it is the way you can create depth in a drawing by focussing on the tones. Using the darker colour of paper as a midtone and adding white for the highlights and dark gray or black for the dark tones is really effective!

Sketch 1 in soft pastel ©Fenfolio2016

Sketch 2 in soft pastel ©Fenfolio2016

Artistic Explorations: Creative Sketchbook (3)

Recently I joined an online group where people who like to draw share their sketches and drawings following two-weekly prompts posted by the administrator of the group. One of the briefs was to draw rocks. Instantly I thought about the standing stones of Callanish on Isle of Lewis we visited last year.

I selected these black and white photographs for my sketches. It really helped that they were monochrome so that I could focus my attention on the shapes, lines and tones.

Callanish stones ©Fenfolio2015

Callanish stones ©Fenfolio2015

Callanish stones ©Fenfolio2015

 The first drawing is a blind contour drawing in black fineliner pen. By only looking at the subject and not on your paper and by keeping the pen on the paper, you feel a bit out of your comfort zone at first but very quickly I felt less restricted somehow. It really is liberating! I like the expressive style you get with this kind of exercise.

Blind contour sketch ©Fenfolio2015

For my second drawing I used the same fineliner pen and focussed on the various tones. But now I used my non-dominant hand (which is my left) to free up the mind! By scribbling light and heavier I was able to create interesting marks and depth.

Pen drawing with non-dominant hand ©Fenfolio2015

The third sketch was again focussed on tones, but this time I used watersolubale graphite pencils (Karismacolor).

Sketch in Karismacolor pencils ©Fenfolio2015

For my fourth sketch I used pastel pencils and a very fine fineliner for the cracks in the rocks on grey coloured paper. I really like the way pastel has given the drawing a more softer, even mysterious feel.

Sketch in pastel pencils ©Fenfolio2015

 Then I wanted to create a drawing with more sharpness and with a more graphic style. I used Derwent Graphik Liner Painter pens on dark grey coloured paper for my fifth drawing.

Drawing in Graphik Liner pens ©Fenfolio2015

 Finally, I wanted to use collage and colour to compare it with my monochrome drawings. For this one I used tissue paper, watercolour paint and inktense pencils on watercolour paper.

Callanish stones drawing in mixed media
©Fenfolio2015

After all these exercises I realised I prefer drawing on darker coloured paper and in monochrome. It's something I will keep in mind for the other prompts!

Artistic Explorations: Creative sketchbook (2)

In my previous article about Creative Sketchbook I showed a few samples of how to fill blank sketchbook pages with various sketches and mixed media paintings. For a long time I also had the idea of turning unwanted books into a sketchbook. I regularly browse the charity shops in my local village and have found some beautiful vintage publications which I intend to use in the future. During one of my visits I saw this book which appealed to me because of the title "Highland Flora" and the amount of images.

Highland Flora by Derek Rattcliffe

Without any plan I started to gather some materials like dried flowers and plants, scraps of old drawings and paintings, (printed) papers and stamps. I enjoyed the process of creating an interesting composition of all the pieces and transforming the original into an altered book.

Front cover altered book © Fenfolio2015

Front cover altered book © Fenfolio2015

Then I flicked through the pages, looked at the images and text and asked myself "What could I add to this page that would complement what's already there?". For some pages it was easy so I started with these. Below are the altered book pages I have made so far.

Left: graphite rubbing and pen drawing
Right: gesso on top of old film and graphite rubbing
© Fenfolio2015

Left: Lace collage on published photo
Right: dried fern, pencil drawing and graphite rubbing
© Fenfolio2015

Left: gesso and pen drawing on published photo
Right: part of own photo print with drawing in conte
© Fenfolio2015

Left: two of my own photos printed on translucent paper with acrylics
Right: ink, acrylics and pen drawing on published map
©Fenfolio2015

Coloured and heated Lutradur fiber on top of published photo
with added pen drawing and some distressed ink on side
© Fenfolio2015

More experimental sketches will be added to the book pages whenever I have the inspiration and time and hopefully one day the original book will be completely unrecognisable!