2020 NEW YEAR, NEW COLLAGRAPHS

It has been traditional for me to leave partly finished work on my studio bench just before the festive mayhem sets in. This helps me start again after Christmas. We often have to deal with post festive blues in the dark days of January and February. After all the jolliness it can often be difficult to get back into the swing of things. 

So I blocked out some diary dates mid December and made some Corvid drawings. Here is a raven found in the middle of Tenby while on holiday.

This is Bran, a tame crow I met earlier in the Autumn at Bobby Britnell's. I have been itching to do homage to this gorgeous creature.

This leaves me with a series of drawings that I can make collagraph plates from when the glitter has settled.

Using grey board, plaster, wood glue and carborundum, between Christmas and New Year I set about making

these two plates.

I press feathers into polyfilla areas,

cutting into the card and applying layers of carborundum to give velvety blacks.

The contrast with wood glue and the bare surface of the card creates tonal differences. Then everything is shellaced.

Then after the New Year celebrations are over, off to the yard:ARTspace to print, print, print.

I am pleased with Helpful Bran and have experimented with mono printing the red thread tangling off the reel.

Dig Deep is a homage to the lovely Mr B who is taking up an allotment this year

So instead of falling down the post Christmas hole, trying to get myself going on something new, what I have set myself up with is work to finish off. There are now new crow images I am itching to draw and get on with and other projects bubbling up in the background. The more I make the more I want to make...!!

So watch this space.