Some new prints....

Last month I set too with some new work using some of my collagraph plates but inking and printing them in relief.

I wanted to work spontaneously and differently to how I normally work so set up lots of inks on my inking slab and had lots of paper ready, this time not having to soak and blot the paper as I was working in relief.

I worked on some monoprint backgrounds using pressed leaves and grasses, then I just went for it...

overlaying the plates on top of each other and running them through my Hawthorne printing press.

Not worrying too much about tonal value as I would in Collagraph printing just seeing what happens and allowing for serendipity to take charge...

I was really pleased with the results and enjoyed the process immensely.  I think having the freedom to just print and work with colour and pattern was liberating. Sometimes you just need manic moments in your life to counter balance the drudgery and to get back some enjoyment and fun to working instead of the methodical approach needed to printing out an edition or making something 'fit' for approaching a gallery with.

I had the above two framed as I liked them the most and since then I have worked digitally with some sections of the prints and cut the images to work as 148mm x 148mm cards which I have just ordered this morning....my first images as cards for sale!

Hopefully I have uploaded the PDFs correctly and the printing goes well, I only ordered a small batch just as a taster to see how they look, I will post them here once I receive them....quite excited!