Ink and Rain
In my last term of the drawing school, I am resolved to make the most of the classes and battling through four days a week and three evenings a week. Virtually all of these are out and about, for the principal reason that although I am confident with my urban environment, I really struggle to draw skies, water and trees. It has led to me approaching my endeavour much like a rambler. With an over-sized backpack, raincoat to hand, packed lunch, sturdy shoes, folding stool or cushion, and a lot of art kit, I cycle or trek across London and set myself up for a long day’s drawing. An artist’s life is not glamorous. Drawing outside all day is twice as tiring as being in a studio, as much as the elements of wind, rain and sun pass over you again and again, they are invigorating.
Yesterday my class paid a visit to Richmond in the west-London suburbs to draw the river. I set out to try monotyping au plein air, a process I’d tried in the studio once or twice, but wanted to try in the great outdoors. The weather couldn’t make up its mind and when we weren’t being blown away we were being soaked. Not ideal for a new process, I felt like Turner must have being tied to a ship’s mast to experience a storm. My kit threatened to blow into the water, my papers leapt in every gale. I knocked my pots over, smeared ink all over my things, my hands, arms and face.
But it was fun. This process of monotype involves smearing and painting ink over a smooth surface (I use perspex), wiping away and painting it, pressing damp paper on (I resorted to dipping sheets in the Thames and almost falling in) and rolling over it to print the ink from plate to paper. Each time was an experiment, as I still have no idea how to master the science of ink/oil/white spirit mixtures, paper types and dampness, so there’s a fair amount of pot luck.
I’ve mixed feelings on the results but I’ll be honest about sharing them as I’ve learnt a lot from where things have gone wrong. There’s a rip or two on the third piece, where the paper may have been too dry. And the fourth is patterned with dots that look like snow, caused by bits of plants and seeds blown by the wind and caught in the ink. But it seems a nice way of working directly on site. Some of these or their ‘ghost’ prints (leftover ink makes a faint second copy) I might work on with more ink, or pastels, a la Degas.
Heron near the boat sheds
Under Richmond Bridge
Richmond Bridge
Boats with Twickenham bridge behind
Glad you showed them. I wonder if they are in the order you created them. I personally like the quality of the boat one the most. Have done a similar thing here in France but we took a little press with us in a butcher’s van. Your idea of the roller is obviously good enough.
I love the effect this gives! From the viewer’s persective, I can feel the storm all around me (especially in the last one of the barge where I feel buffeted by rain AND wind!). The middle two are especially lovely, the technique really makes them seem “watery”–as though the rain and river itself overflowed onto the paper. It makes the element of water less an object being observed and more…what? It’s almost like the water has become your partner in the painting. Rather than just looking AT it, it’s given a voice in the conversation that you, the artist, and I, the viewer, are having about what you’re observing…it’s become a ‘third person’ in the work, which adds an extra dynamic.
I hope you had a good cuppa and a hot bath after going through that!
Thanks, as always, for your lovely works…
I love the effect this gives! From the viewer’s persective, I can feel the storm all around me (especially in the last one of the barge where I feel buffeted by rain AND wind!). The middle two are especially lovely, the technique really makes them seem “watery”–as though the rain and river itself overflowed onto the paper. It makes the element of water less an object being observed and more…what? It’s almost like the water has become your partner in the painting. Rather than just looking AT it, it’s given a voice in the conversation that you, the artist, and I, the viewer, are having about what you’re observing…it’s become a ‘third person’ in the work, which adds an extra dynamic.
+1
Thank you all! A lot of people seem to like these. I’ve just tried some in the City of spires and bridges, I must get them up next, I’d be curious to know how you think the watery technique transfers to stones and buildings. And thank you Eden Springs, I love the idea of the water being my partner in a painting, on such a day it did feel like that, you either have to work with the water and rain or else it would work against you! More pictures coming up soon….