Didn't make the cut...

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I'm doing a bit of studio tidying and coming across abandoned projects - the ones that never quite gelled. Like Lemonade. 

I'd carved the lemon slices and then a batch of strawberries. Plus a few blueberries.

I tried a number of ideas - like below - printing the slices as grapefruit. Here I had fun folding the notecard off-center and lining up another print on the inside flap.

Also played up the circular shape and used a Japanese cutter to make a batch of round gift tags.

Printed the stamp as lemons, oranges and grapefruit in rounds and crescents.

Then with the strawberry stamp:

I know at one point I also tried working in a few of the blueberries but, unfortunately, seem not to have kept any samples. I keep coming back to this composition (below) but still not enthused. Second photo shows the back of the notecard as well.

For now, everything is getting filed away again but, who knows, one day I'll have a glimmer of an idea and pull out the stamps and try something new with them. Although, maybe this idea was doomed from the start - since it's a lemon! (Sorry, couldn't resist...)

I like looking back on old work and thinking, next post, I might share a few more ideas that didn't make the cut. Meanwhile, thank you so much for following my art adventure. See you soon!

A Few Lines...

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I'm finishing up a small series of collage postcards I'm calling 'a few lines' and it seems good timing to start up the blog again. Thought I'd be back January and here it's July already! Nevertheless, hoping to reconnect with a few lines to you.

One evening I came across the print scrap that became the flower pot above. I snipped it out and dug around for something to be the plant (samples below).

You might remember how I often overprint patterned origami paper with my own hand-carved blocks. These prints (below) provided a lot of twiggy fodder!

Playing around, I decided a tall format to accomodate the flowers and twigs was the way to go. By chance, there was a stack of 9-cm-wide cardstock offcuts handy and I cut them down to 23-cm-long to fit a standard #10 envelope (the narrow one often used for business correspondence).

Thought I might make two or three of these collage postcards but got absorbed and kept going. This is what I love about an art practice. You get an idea and, hours later, you have something in hand. It didn't exist that morning and now it does. At least that's how it often is for me. I'm attracted to bits of paper, move them around and eventually they turn into something. That bit of pink and brown print reminded me of a flower pot and next thing there were days of digging through the scrap bins for pots and plants.

Coming across bits of prints is like running into old friends. As I cut and pasted, I remembered carving the stamps or blocks. I was often dissatisfied at the time but now I saw my work with fresh eyes. It was relaxing and fun to manipulate them into new compositions and -- as it always is with a series -- take chances and try things out to see "what happens if..."

A garden at night is magical and I added moons.

I tried a few horizontal compositions.

As I went along, things got looser and more experimental. 

And then, as always happens, I was done with the series. Whatever had absorbed me and drew me along disappeared. So I turned my attention to the backs, had fun coming up with the series title 'a few lines', added my web site and affixed a little decorative scrap.

I always learn so much with a series. This time I got comfortable with the idea I'm happiest with my work when there is a lot of white space. I love the richly layered work of other artists but it's a spare composition that calls to me for my own stuff.

Hoping to drop a few lines in another few weeks. Until then, happy summer!

Bit More on that Series!

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Remember how in that last post about my "folding screen-influenced" collages, I said it was easy to find three strips that went together -- it was the fourth uniting the composition that proved elusive?

I happened to notice three strips fit perfectly on my preferred format --  5x5-inch card blanks. Something about the square just calls to me...

So you'd think these little guys would be quick and easy to whip up, wouldn't you? But, no! Now that I was looking for combinations of three, I found lots of pairs and the third strip was the challenge! Go figure!

Just like the four strip panels, these three-panel collages were perfect for little bits of time here and there. Again, quieter palettes prevailed but I did manage brighter and/or prettier ones, like above. The black, grey and ochre combinations, though, were some of my favourites.

Also grey, black and grey-blues:

Botanical imagery appears in both the 4-panel and the 3-panel collages. But not the imagery of a summer garden. I see brambles and twigs, damp foliage and tiny wetland blossoms. 

And, over time, for both the four-panel and three-panel compositions, these images coalesced into the Marsh Lands series.

Some of the collages, though, began to exhibit what I've come to think of as an "urban edge". Text and numbers, textures that could be concrete or stucco wire, and hints of graffiti.

Like this one:

Is that foamy white the splash of a city fountain? How about the text on the right-hand side -- maybe a street sign or a shop name? 

Or the text in this one? 

One project pushes me onto the next thing, often without any conscience direction on  my part. All my work, up to now, has been mostly based in the natural world. But I'm excited by this grittier edge that's creeping in. Where it's heading, I have no idea! I'm happy to go along for the ride, though, and if the destination is anywhere interesting, I'll be sure to let you know. 

Again, I'm taking a little break from blogging. This time of year is perfect for reflection and planning for the next leg of the journey. Thank you so much for following along and I look forward to connecting in the New Year. (I will still post occasionally here on Instagram.)

Working in a Series

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Summer can be busy and it was nice to have a little project on the go. Something to tinker with whenever I passed through the studio -- but not too messy -- and easy to start and stop. Little collages fit the bill. And, as British artist Louise Fletcher advises when you're waiting to start the next "big" thing, in the meantime do something you love.

For me, it's cutting up paper! Not ripping or tearing, but cutting. With my trusty paper cutter, this handful of papers:

became this:

Not having a clue where I was going, I used the metal guide on the cutter and reduced old gel prints, clean up sheets, book pages, vintage paper -- whatever was at hand -- to 1.25-inch (about 3cm) strips.

It was fun to sort through the strips -- all colours and patterns -- and see if I could find four or five that went together and "told a story." As mentioned before, I do like a mix of commercially-printed and found ephemera and my own hand-printed papers. There's something appealing about the mix of organic and graphic shapes.

I cut down some of the strips to a height of 9cm so I could play around on a 5x7-inch card blank. Like this:

Then I made some of the strips even narrower and, after a bit, ended up with a few cards like this:

I trialed butting the strips and also leaving a tiny space. Then I went to four strips, this time keeping them the same width. Again, tried both tight and with the white space.

Something was taking shape for me and I realized, on the some level, I was referencing the folding screens I'd looked at in a book on Japanese art. Just like that, a series was developing!

The sombre tones, like above, seem to be my go-to palette, but I made an effort to make some light-hearted combinations too.

The collage below was one of those happy accidents. Notice how the curve of the white leaf in the right hand strip follows all the way through the composition. The strips were all pre-cut so it was just luck and happenstance!

Working in a series lets you take risks (especially with small pieces like mine) and experiment with colour. Look at these warm tones -- not my usual palette:

And fun with neutrals:

Found I preferred a bit of white between the panels and tried different ways to get even spacing. Like below, using a see-through "zero in the middle" ruler: 

In the end, the simplest method (finding the middle of the card and working out from there) gave me the most even results. I worked fast and intuitively, hunting for a mix of pattern and colour that spoke to me. I took chances and auditioned unlikely combinations just to see how they worked together. Like this one:

A lot of pattern! But hoping the mix of gold and aqua ties everything together. And then this one where I "bookend" commercial paper with printed paper:

And this bright one (I liked it!) with a hand-carved dragonfly stamp:

Hoping these small collages appear effortless and spontaneous. But, for me, there's a surprising amount of consideration behind the scenes. It's the rare composition that just comes together on its own. It happens but that's a gift! The rest of the time, it's a shell game, moving pieces until suddenly something clicks. It's funny, it's often easy to put three strips together but that fourth -- the one that ties everything together -- is elusive! Thanks so much for following along and if you'd like a close up look there are two videos below.

See you soon!