Playing in the studio with succulents and plants from the Garden. Gelliplate fun prints.
Pulling monoprints today for future art projects.
Here it is laid out on the gelliplate:
I love using my gelliplate as it is in many ways a very portable printing press. And with my Summer studio now so very hot due to our closing off some windows, I find myself using it more and more. In the midst of a Spring project that had to be stopped as we lost our handyman, My Summer studio's cross breezes from the ocean are now gone and my tiny window air conditioner can not keep up as the ceilings are too high. So, it's the gelliplate and me in the garden then.
I love gardening and in many ways consider planting and making borders and beds creating art and your paint and tools are plants and foliage.
So, it stands to reason that I am inspired to bring in these beauties to end up in printmaking and eventually lead to inspiration in larger paintings and drawings.
And here is a vision in blue. I like to ink part of the plate with paper blocking a bit, to keep it clean. Then I impress the ink with the cut flowers/leaves/succlents and then take their ghost or stamp onto the clean side.
In the first shared print I left the flowers and articles on the gelliplate whilst placing the paper over it, giving it first a print with negative space, as this:
Then the second or ghost print is pulled from the gelliplate and before I do that (without adding more ink) I take the flowers off and replace a couple turning their inked sides towards where the paper where hit, thus getting that print.
The gelliplate is amazing at getting fine detail on petals, sepals, leaves and seedheads.
Sometimes I will pull the first print such as this in yellow (as I did in the video)
And then set up the gelliplate with a second colour and impression from flowerheads and print again on the same paper, giving it layers in colour and form.
Here is a version in blue.
You can really see the impressions it makes. And I love blue and white together, it reminds me of the china I collect.
These monoprints will be saved digitally and used in some future projects many times.
I'll share next what I intend to do with them. As well as sometimes they will be used to print over with screenprinted images or such making 1/1 monoprints as originals. Thus I can use the elements many times over before the final print making it a stand alone piece of signed art as well.
I love how the digital world allows we artist to now make such pieces and if we wish to capture our layers to use in other things, we have that option. In the old days if we like a layer but new we were painting more over it, we simply had to either take a photo to look at and recall it or just let in live in our memory as we painted over it.
I hope you have a moment to play and experiment in whatever your art form is today. The joy of mixing passions, such as gardening and printmaking for me, is really an important part of enjoying Life, I think. So, I hope you get to experience that in some way today.
If you like my posts please upvote, resteem, and by all means comment, I love comments!
Check out my other posts:
8 A #sublimesunday on a Monday: Garden, mini-pond and daily sketch
- My Singularity piece for Art Explosion Week 42: No Theme
- An accidental Haiku and a marriage of said poem to a cafe drawing.
- Daily Drawing: Best friends
- Photos of the day: My flowers colour inspiration.
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Since blue is all time fav color, i will be all in with the blue and white one.. It is amazing in the end. Can feel the improvisation aspect it has connected to it
It's a great way to play and to add detail and layers to my work. I love being in the garden and going on nature walks. I also have the benefit of playing on our beach so I am always collecting up things to use on the plate. I feel like my environment imbues my work, even if it turns out to be subtle ways like a pattern on a dress of a figure in a painting or the background patterns. It all builds up in my work.
wow that is very interesting approach to a creative process. Do you use instagram as a platform?
Very cool, almost abstract looking painting. I think this is a unique technique and a beautiful way to capture and preserve the memories of summer and the colors that goes with it
aaah these are wonderful, @donnadavisart ! the texture and impressions that the flowers made are so pretty <3 the blue and white ones are especially elegant * ___ * but i love the first one, also, with the yellows and oranges <3 very lovely !
Thank you, they are really fun to make. You can layer quite a bit and still get rather clean impressions and a pretty good second ghost print.
I had never heard of the gelliplate ... but I sure love the effect it gives. The one with the inkted flowers I really love. So much nice details in this.
It really is amazing the detail in can capture.
As always, very interesting and inspiring. Never new about this gelliplate, but I definitely have to have one. Nice to see you work with that on the videos, looks like a very interesting method and I love what you do with it.
Great nail color by the way!
Oh, you have to get a gelliplate, they are so fun. When I first discovered them I couldn't believe it, after printmaking with heavy presses etc for so long I was impressed with what I could do with it. I can even use it with collographs and such. I need a new one, this one has had years of abuse.
I just found out they now have a 12 x 12 so I think I'll order one.
Thanks, I should have touched up my nails pre video.
I'm not very good on the video as it is just my hand holding my phone, so I have to pause set it down etc. I need a tripod.
amazing and beautiful effect, i love very much the final result
though i feel kinda of bad for the flowers xD
well everything for art xD
Well, I always consider flowers the lovely 'letters' from my plants. I can cut them and bring them in and it's like getting a letter from them about how they are doing out in the garden. And of course, it's like cutting hair, as it doesn't kill the plant, and when they dry out you can take the seeds and plant more! I love the magic of the garden!
oh wow, I love these! :D
Thank you, they're fun to make.
Love your art, you are one of my favorite artists here on steemit. Lots of imagination and such variety in your artful pursuits. I’m going to have to experiment with gelliplates. My Muse has been missing of late.
What a kind thing to say!
I'm probably too varied, but I just love to play about with different things. For me art is experiment, play, ponder, imagine, play some more, then thought , story, and execution. It's all in the process.
I hope you find your muse. Pick a flower or look at the shore closely and I bet your muse will return!
I love your blue nail color! And what beautiful and smooth hands you have, even after all that gardening! Red and yellow is my type of print.
I should have done a touch up if I had known they were so visible :)
The secret for garden hands...gloves ;)
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