Collagraph Printmaking



Susanne Clark - Soaring Into The Blue
©2011 Susanne Clark
Collagraph Print on Paper -  8 x 8 in -  $75.00


Last Friday night I gave a talk to an art society group about my art and printmaking.  In the first half I talked about my painting process and showed some photographs.  I set up the pictures in Power Point and connected to their projector.  The color was a complete disaster which was a pity.  It appears that they find it hard to get the color right when using the projector so in the future if I am asked to do this again for a smallish group, I will take my own monitor and use that, then I know that the colors will show correctly. 

The second part of the presentation was about printmaking.  I mainly make collagraph prints, a form of printmaking, which as the name suggests, comes from collage.  I took a variety of my prints and also some examples of the collagraph plates that I make to print the images from.   As usual everyone fell in love with the actual plates.  I think it is the texture and depth of the plates after they have been printed that is so appealing.  Because printmaking, and especially collagraph, is less familiar to many artists I think it was probably the most interesting part of the talk. 

To brighten up this post I have added a photo of a small collagraph that I experimented with last week.  I wanted to try using printing ink in a very transparent way.  It's part of a larger plate that I wasn't happy with so I cropped the image down.  It ended up being very simple but I think it has a very optimistic feel.  Does it  feel that way to you?

What I'm Fired Up About at the Moment

Leafy Kimono - Collagraph Handprint by Susanne Clark

 Next week I'm off to Portugal on holiday.  I thought I would write about a few things that I'm fired up  about before I go.

smARTist Telesummit 2011.  Last week I took part in this one week online artist's career telesummit for the first time.  I was a bit dubious about spending the money in case it wasn't worthwhile but it was great.  There were some very good speakers whose presentations were both inspiring and helpful and although quite a lot of the material wasn't new to me I still gained a lot of new ideas and info.  It was pretty overwhelming because of the large amount of info over a short period of time so thankfully I will be able to listen to it all again online and when the set of cd's arrive.  There are handouts and a workbook to work through as well.  Even though it was a online event there was a lot of interaction between the participants.  I liked it so much that I may sign up for it again next year.  Before then though I have a lot of ideas to implement.  Link to smARTist

The China Diet.  I just finished reading this book and I think it's something that everyone should read. Once again I knew quite a lot about the diet that is written about in this book and yet it still made a big impression on me.  It clearly makes the connection between cancer, and many other diseases, to a western diet.  I've been a vegetarian for 30 years and I'm not thin, unfortunately, or pale and sickly looking which seems to be the general idea about veges,  and now I'm thinking of moving to a vegan diet after reading this.  The big problem, it appears, is animal fat.  I love cheese, yogurt and an egg a few times a week but I am going to cut that right back.  One of the interesting points is that animal fats make young girls menstruate at a much earlier age and then as they age they go into menopause later. This exposes women to more estrogen over their lifetime, something not good for breast cancer.  There are a lot of reviews on Amazon the average being 4.5 out of 5.  I would strongly encourage you to read this.   Read more here on Amazon.

The last thing I'm fired up about at the moment is how people seem to get so upset about seeing nudity on TV or a woman breastfeeding and yet they have no problem watching hours of violence on the tube.  North America seems to be worse about this than anywhere we have lived.  All advertising here seems to be based around sex and yet a woman breastfeeding seems to send nearly everyone into shock.  Huge artificial boobs are OK but using them for what they are designed for is not.  I don't like porn at all but have no trouble with nudity.

Now that I have shared my feelings I can relax and take off to Portugal.  Watch for a few posts from there.

Alpharetta Art Festival

Last weekend I did the Alpharetta Arts Festival. I can't say it was a successful show for me however I did manage to cover my costs and have enough over to buy us both dinner and a few wines. I'm not complaining though. It was actually really fun and we met some wonderful fellow exhibitors. We also learnt a lot more about the whole Art Festival Process which was very helpful. One of the most interesting things though, was seeing what work was selling well at the other booths in the show. My husband was almost incredulous at the success of some of the work but it just goes to show that taste differs and that's a good thing. As for me, I was really inspired by the amazing work created by many of the people.

To put a nice end to the story, I just heard that two of my collagraphs sold at Rev Coffee.

Collagraph Printmaking Workshop

I have just finished writing up the info for a collagraph printmaking workshop that I am going to give early next year at the Atlanta Artists Center. The dates are not set yet but it will be a two day workshop on a weekend in either January or February. I am quite excited about doing this as I really like to teach and I think collagraph is a fantastic form of printmaking. What is particularly great about it that even absolute beginners get wonderful and exciting results that look very professional. Once everything is confirmed I will post the info.

Art Studio Clean Up

The last few days I have been doing lots of art related things but no actual art making. I feel a bit of a slob as I have spent lots of time on the computer and didn't go to the gym or get any exercise which I like to do. My husband has been away so we haven't even been out walking each day.

He got really angry with me last week. When we meet new people and they ask me about my art work he says I should have a small portfolio to show them what I am about. Sort of a little granny brag book, something else I don't have even though I now have a lovely little granddaughter. Anyway I feel funny about pulling out one of those but I have been reading about artists having a brochure that shows a few pictures and tells about the artist and their work. So today I decided to put one together. I have this old Corel program called Corel Printhouse that is wonderful for things like that however it won't run on my laptop so I had to sit down at my old computer and work there. It seemed to take me all day by the time I wrote it and proofed it several times. It's amazing how many mistakes and writing changes that need to be made. I'm quite happy with it now and I know I will feel ok about giving one to anyone who is interested.

I am also in the process of making up a large portfolio with all my kimono collagraph prints in it. They will benefit from being in one as they get handled a lot and this will keep fingers off the paper and still allow people to flip through them and see them. They look very nice in there too with the black paper backing. I think I will make a smaller one as well for my other printmaking work so that I have exampes to show when I start teaching basic printmaking.

Part of all this is the big clean up I have been doing in my art studio. I still have more to do but the art work in my plan chest is all sorted and tidied up. I'm not sure what a plan chest is called in the US but it is an architects set of drawers large enough to hold plans. Mine is huge and holds two full sheets of paper side by side. It's one of the best art things I have bought.

Tomorrow evening is the opening of the Atlanta Artists Center National Exhibition. I have never managed to get to one of the openings so I am looking forward to it.

My next post will have some photos instead of all the blurb!