I started this research by looking for contemporary artists, and came across the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, Conneticut. There is currently an exhibition, the 4^th Biennial International Footprint Exhibition, featuring prints of 1 square foot in size (30.5 x 30.5 cm). The exhibition is on view through August 31, 2014, which is today. Unfortunately this was too late for me to make it there, but I selected artists from the online presentation of this exhibition.

So in a way, I’m making a virtual exhibition visit and combine it with this research point. I will keep an eye on the center because they are quite active and also offer printmaking workshops.

Unfortunately, the images from the exhibition are copyrighted, so I’m not going to include them in my blog, but post the link to the picture instead. I’ll say a few words to some prints that attracted my attention.

Peter Barron: “Among those left behind”

https://www.flickr.com/photos/contemprints1995/14434116731/in/set-72157645093656835

This is a woodprint in green, red and yellow with black texture printed on top. I found this print very appealing because of the strong colour contrast and the heavily textured surface. When looking only briefly, the image might pass as a bush of colourful red roses in a green garden, with some adjacent yellow flowers. But actually it shows red faces and the black texture on the green background resembles wire fence or something similarly unpleasant to the touch.

The irregular surface texture in combination with the strong colours creates high tension and the faces are like screaming to the viewer. I find this an intimidating print. Without going into the probably political message, the way the artist has used texture is very successful in conveying that tension “among those left behind”.

From a purely visual standpoint, this is what I was looking for in my final series of project 4, the view on the pond. I wanted irregular, crisp, dark black marks for the leaves before a coloured sky background. Seeing this print made me wonder whether a relief technique would have been more appropriate for what I intended to achieve.

Joan Potkay: Shimmer light; (sunflower monoprint)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/contemprints1995/14251037747/in/set-72157645093656835

I admit that this monoprint is not heavily relying on texture… colour and shape seem to be much more important. Nevertheless wanted to reflect on it for those texture bits included because I found them remarkable.

There is some texture in the lower left, created using some type of blue ink. It is very irregular and looks like blotted and accidental, but I found it very effective in conveying natural forms of background elements. The leaves of the sunflower are also textured using this blue tone, partly linear and partly using shapes for shaded areas.

A more linear approach is used for the flower and its orange center. I think the technique is effective to convey the life energy of the plant, but it is not very subtle and for me it does not capture the haptic qualities of the actual surface. But probably the artist did not intend to do that.

The linear technique, maybe a variant of backdrawing, was not used very delicately. I find it remarkable that I realize this because I tend to draw this way and have only recently begun to explore a more sensitive approach to surface texture.

Susan Newbold: Cambodian Memory

https://www.flickr.com/photos/contemprints1995/14457709183/in/set-72157645093656835

This is an abstract composition in purple and orange on white ground, and there’s quite a lot of texture on the surface. The orange areas are almost three dimensional through the use of lighter and darker values. The purple areas seem to use a medium range of tones to create a pattern which is then perceived as texture. The overall effect is interesting and convincing in a way that I’d almost expect to touch a wiggled and bumped surface when touching the print.

It almost looks like a photographic technique, maybe screenprinting was used, but it might also be the result of printing positive and negative on top of each other with slight misalignment, similar to what I accidentally achieved with the first print of five single leaves in grey tones (Project 4, series 2, the leaves).

What works particularly well for me is the colour choice of orange and purple together, and that there’s much of the white paper shining through. The irregular distribution of lighter and darker areas and the seemingly accidental overprinting makes the entire print look very organic.

Sergey Zlotnikov: Summer on the pond

http://ww.flickr.com/photos/contemprints1995/14250851148/in/set-72157645093656835

I selected this print because of the photographic quality and because of the motif, the pond. I found this interesting in light of my own attempts to create the reflections on the water surface with printmaking techniques in the pond series of project 4.

Looking up the artist’s website I realized that he employed an ancient photographic technique. I didn’t delve into the details but I think like modern analog techniques it is based on a chemical reaction involving light, not a manual printmaking technique. I was wondering how the print made it into the exhibition.

Anyway, of course the technique is very successful in creating the illusion of textured surface, in particular the little wiggles on the water, but it’s unfair competition!

Mitchell Visoky: Navigating currents (black textures on a pale yellow support)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/contemprints1995/14436201312/in/set-72157645093656835

This print is the one that relied most on texture, because there’s almost nothing else than textured areas to see. There are hardly any recognizable shapes, only some egg-shaped elements, and the colour range is between pale yellow and dark grey.

The title is quite good because the subject looks like water or clouds or mud, stirred or for some other reason in heavy motion. As in the purple and orange print by Susan Newbold, I’d expect a textured surface and a haptic effect when touching it.

Maybe it’s the choice of colour or missing a white support to shine through, but I found this print less visually appealing than the purple and orange one. There are also some drawn marks, rows of circles in dark colour, that are not very well integrated with the background texture. Maybe these marks are what the artist referred to as “navigating”, as if they were trying to trace the underlying currents.

Conclusion

Looking at textures in prints is actually quite interesting. It’s good to have gained some practical experience myself how to create them, this made me more aware of what happens in artist prints. I also realized the huge variety how texture can be used for printmaking.

References

CCP website: http://contemprints.org

Flickr page with selected works from the 2014 Footprint Exhibition: https://www.flickr.com/photos/contemprints1995/sets/72157645093656835/page2/

I learnt that Henry de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864-1901) had been known well for the posters he made of Paris nightlife at the end of the 19th century. I was surprised because I knew some drawings and paintings but hadn’t realized the bohemian context. I also hadn’t been aware that he made so many lithographic prints.

Unfortunately I had no prior knowledge about lithography so was rather unprepared what to look out for, but on the other hand I appreciated the situation of no preconceptions. I noticed the variability of line – different thicknesses and different tones. I found the black and white stone lithographic prints very different from other techniques I knew, for example dry-point etching or relief techniques. The posters looked like colorized drawings, but the lithographic process made them appear more massive.

To my regret taking pictures was not allowed and I did not make notes on the lithos I saw. But the MOMA has quite an extensive collection available online, so I am including some prints here just as a reminder.

– At the Moulin Rouge: Rugged! Really Rugged! (Au Moulin Rouge: Un Rude! Un vrai Rude!) 1893
– A Gala Evening at the Moulin Rouge (Une Redoute au Moulin Rouge) 1893
– Jane Avril (1893)
– The Clowness at the Moulin Rouge (La Clownesse au Moulin Rouge) (1897)

What I found very interesting and characteristic for Toulouse-Lautrec were the wiggly lines with which he drew, and how they reappeared in his prints. My favourite print in the exhibition was “The Jockey” (1899). I loved how the horses with their jockeys were depicted from behind, as if they had just passed by in extreme hurry.

I found the litho prints visually quite different from the monotypes on which I had focused during part 1 of the printmaking course. The technique seemed to permit more control over the outcome, and the resulting prints were much more like coloured drawings, compared to the painterly character of monotypes. But I thought this might encourage me to work more freely with line and texturing the inked plate, either directly or using backdrawing.

References

MOMA exhibition site: http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1493

MOMA online collection of works by Toulouse-Lautrec: http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A5910&template_id=10&sort_order=1&results_per_page=80&page_number=1

Review article in the NY times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/15/arts/design/toulouse-lautrecs-groundbreaking-prints-at-moma.html?_r=0

I did some preliminary research on the topic, but somehow wasn’t able to locate artists that employed back drawing. Then by chance, I came across Paul Gauguin’s prints and discovered that one, he was seen as one of the groundbreaking artists for transfer drawing and two, there was currently an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York: Paul Gauguin Metamorphoses. So I decided to focus this research point on only a single artist and take the opportunity to make an exhibition visit.

I’m currently on a mini-pause to the printmaking course because working towards assignment 4 of the watercolour course, but I couldn’t postpone the visit any longer because the exhibition was soon to close. I wasn’t happy about switching between courses because it meant that I went with my mind entangled in a different art medium, but then it turned out to be no problem at all. I am so glad I went because the exhibition was so exciting and inspiring. It consisted of three large gallery rooms full of Paul Gauguin’s artwork made in relation to his travels to Tahiti. There were many wood prints, monotypes and oil transfer drawings, but also some oil paintings, wood reliefs and sculptures, and some ceramic works.

I made many notes and even a sketch from one of the transfer drawings that I found particularly interesting. I’ll try to summarize the main points and observations.

Wood prints

I don’t remember to have seen real woodprints (not reproductions) like these before. They have a special quality, very rough and “primitive” and I think this effect was intended by Gauguin. They all show the marks of the tools that were used, and they are not polished to fine detail but left raw and vigorous. The prints are delicate and atmospheric nevertheless.

I discovered interesting details about how the tools were used. Gauguin seemed to have carved very fine guiding lines to outline the motif, and then carved away those areas not to be printed. But for carving these larger areas he used a broader tool and did not get exactly to the edges of the fine carved lines. This resulted in very subtle double contours in some woodprints, and I really liked the effect.

There was a sparceness in his linework which corresponded extremely well to the motif. For example, he made prints of night scenes lit by an open fire. The figures and objects were indicated only by a line contour. So most of the wooden area was inked and printed in dark, with light lines to indicate the figures, resulting in very subtly lit images.

In one print showing a female figure, I wondered how he achieved the soft shadings that separated the two legs, without using a clear cut line. He had carved away part of the backgroun, and here the legs were set off a white background. It looked to me as if he had sanded off the front area of the left leg up to the middle. In this area, the dark ink was lightened up to a medium tone. The right leg began where the ink was very dark again. The method was also used to set off parts of the dark figure against the dark background. This was very impressive and I found the technique quite inventive.

Gauguin’s prints in the first series presented, the Noa Noa suite, were quite uneven, but tremendously atmospheric. By contrast, prints from the woodblocks later made by his artist friend Louis Roy were technically “superior” in that they had very evenly printed forms with clear contours and clear colour separations. The interesting thing was that Gauguin’s rough and seemingly imperfect prints had much more character and appeal than Roy’s versions. I think this is very important to consider when making prints – the strive for technical perfection is not necessarily something that improves the overall result. More subtle ways of inking and printing can greatly enhance the individual character of a print.

Ceramics

There were several ceramic objects exposed. I particular liked a vase, “decorated with Breton Scenes” (1886-87). It was about 45 cm high and 12 cm in diameter, made of dark brown clay, and colourfully glazed with a painted motif. The top and bottom rims of about 8 and 4 cm were dark in transparent glaze, while the middle area of around 30 cm had a white background. In this areas there were painted figures and trees. Especially nice was how the trees extended above the area of the white background to the top rim, like an element running out of the picture space. This detail was recurring in the so-called zincograph prints Gauguin made at the same time, the Volpini suite

Zincographs: The Volpini suite

These were a series of prints in yet another printmaking technique Gauguin experimented with. I think it was something like drypoint etching combined with partial inking/wiping of a printing plate – monoprinting on a zinc plate, maybe? These were printed on yellow paper and several had unusual printing areas, for example a rectangle having two edges rounded off by 1/3 of the image area, or another which was shaped like a part of a cylinder laid out flat (see picture). Gauguin seemed to have experimented with image formats, or maybe it was the result of having only odd-shaped zinc plates available. Other prints had parts of the motif extending over the actual printing rectangle. The overall impression was really nice.

I realized that until now I had taken my rectangle printing plates as granted and that there’s much more potential for experimentation with differently shaped printing areas.

Monotypes

The exhibition presented several monotypes, mostly made in watercolours. They were quite faint, but had a very delicate quality to them, with fine lines probably added later on top of the actual print.

One of the monotypes I liked best was “Still life with pitcher and fruits” (c. 1899) which resembles the watercolour still lives by Paul Cezanne. But Gauguin’s style was different, with clear lines and simplified shapes. This one was made in gouache which resulted in somewhat intenser colours. It’s not very large, about 20 x 30 cm.

What struck me over the series of monotypes was how the style of Gauguin’s preparatory drawings resembled my own drawings for the stencil monotype series. In my own drawings, I had deliberately tried to simplify in order to obtain shapes that I could cut out in paper. Discovering a similar kind of simplification in Gauguins drawings and paintings made me think that maybe this was influenced by his printmaking.

Later reading of the Wikipedia article on Paul Gauguin informed me that this simplifying style in painting was termed ‘Cloisonnism’ by art critic Édouard Dujardin to characterize paintings “with flat areas of color and bold outlines” resembling the cloisonnée enameling technique. In this painting style, classical perspective rules are not followed, and this is something that I find very typical for Gauguins paintings – they all have a strange kind of perspective in them. Gauguins style is said to have evolved towards Synthetism, where “neither form nor colour predominate but each has an equal role”.

Oil transfer drawings

The exhibition info explained that Gauguin made his oil transfer drawings by covering a sheet of paper with oil paint, then placing a second sheet on top, and then drawing onto the clean second sheet with pencils. Afterwards, he pulled the two sheets apart and the actual artwork was on the back side of the drawing, transferred from the first sheet.

I really liked the combination of lines and shades of paint in these backdrawings. Unlike my own attempts, where the line work was more or less obfuscated by areas of ink unvoluntarily transferred, those of Gauguin were better controlled, with areas of colour supporting the linework.

Three of these drawings I found very remarkable. The first was part of a book cover for “Catholicism and the modern mind”, where Gauguin discussed and critiqued catholic moral beliefs. The two outward sides of the book cover were oil transfer drawings made in 1902. I made a sketch of the title page to study the distribution of light and dark more closely. The drawings were made on brown paper and I found it fascinating how the figures came up lighter off the background, and how Gauguin played with shaded areas to make elements come to the fore or recede.

By chance my sketchbook had brown paper and I was using a new pencil, “Prismacolor Ebony Jet Black”. My pencil drawings often lack depth because I’m having difficulties to create really dark values, but with these pencils it worked. They are very soft and with some overworking, quite dark tones resulted. I’m quite happy with my sketch because it captures what had fascinated me about the original drawing.

The second oil transfer drawing that impressed me was “Change of residence” (ca. 1902). It shows 2 figures to the left, a white horse in the middle, and another figure to the right. Again I was fascinated by the distribution of light and dark and how the areas in colour supported the linework. The figures had dark skin and were set off the dark background through lines only. They had light clothes on. Then there was the white horse which stood off from the dark background, but had its legs and feet darkened against a lighter background. The composition was a very intricate pattern of figure/ground, using line and light/dark values.

Two back drawings with the same title exist, but I’m referring to the one where the figures have dark skin, and which is less clear overall.

A third one titled “Tahitian woman with evil spirit” depicted the face of a young woman and an elderly male figure who represented the evil spirit. It was made in the same technique, but the overall impression was much subtler than the other two. I think this was the result of a different technique, maybe finer drawing tools and more controlled application of pressure on the paper.

With my own back drawing attempts, I had initially used a chinese bamboo pen without ink because I thought that applying pressure was the important thing and I did not want to “spoil” the verso of the paper sheet. But of course this did not work very well because I had no visual clue what I was drawing, besides very light impression marks. So I quickly switched to ball pen, which worked well for me because of the fine tip and exact linear pression (the results were diffuse but that’s another matter, probably too much ink on the plate).

In the museum, they presented the oil transfer drawings in free standing frames, so that people were able to look at both sides of the work. It was really interesting to compare the marks that were drawn with the transferred result. In one of the transfer drawings, Gauguin had made a light oil wash on the drawing side, and I thought this might have been to apply light but controlled pressure over a broader area – not to create a line, but to create shades.

Conclusion

I had been postponing the visit to this exhibition for weeks and really struggled to reserve the time for going. I’m so glad I finally made it, two days before the end of the exhibition. The visit was hugely inspiring and again I realized the difference between seeing real artwork versus seeing online or book reproductions. There are qualities in the real thing that cannot be transmitted by a technical reproduction: The true size, the quality of the paper, how the ink is layered on the surface. I loved looking at three-dimensional woodblocks and reliefs and getting a feel for their haptic qualities. It was exceptional and absolutely worth the trip.

Gauguins style resonated with me, maybe less the paintings, but the prints all the more, in particular how he simplified and clarified the shapes and how he used line, tone and contrast to support the compositions. I got so many ideas I’d like to try out in my own printmaking and am quite sure this visit will have quite an impact on future work.

I also like how I approached this research point. Focusing on a single artist and combining the research with an exhibition visit permitted me to dig a bit deeper. It was very rewarding and a welcome change to the often overwhelming experience of looking at many different artists in a brief period of time when researching a specified topic.

References

Exhibition site at MOMA http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2014/gauguin/home
Exhibition checklist with all works http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2014/gauguin/content/Gauguin%20Exhibition%20Checklist%2003.11.14.pdf
Paul Gauguin biography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gauguin
Catholicism and the modern mind book cover (ca 1902) http://www.slam.org/emuseum/code/emuseum.asp?style=single&newvalues=1&rawsearch=id/,/is/,/18302/,/false/,/true
Gauguin Metamorphoses, Exhibition catalog

What makes them so powerful? I think it’s the simplicity of the shapes. Although, on a second look, the shapes are not that simple actually, with many curves and irregularities. But the reduction to a simple element in plain colour of dark blue with its strong contrast to the white background works very well.

Then there’s the expressiveness of the poses, which seem to capture movement or a distinc gesture or stance. The shapes are built from generous lines that convey a sense of energy and flow.

What can I learn from them? I wouldn’t want to copy the style, but I realize that Matisse solved the problem of more complex shapes by composing several pieces to a larger shape, with white lines in between that help the viewer to understand the form. When I was making my stencils in the previous project, I tried to obtain one single shape which would work by its silhouette, rather than composing the mask out of several pieces. When I was choosing the sketches to further work with, I excluded those which were only decipherable if I divided the mask in several parts.

So Matisses techniques shows a way to do stencils for more complex forms. For example, I had made a sketch of two elephants, one behind the other, and this should look well if divided into two separate masks with a separating line from the background between them. It wouldn’t have worked as a single shaped silhouette though.

Here’s another cut-out composition by Matisse for the “Jazz” artist book. It’s called “The Clown” and was made 1943. The shapes are a mix of wavy and edgy, which creates much impact together with the strong colour contrast. I see a scene from a circus – the red and white Pierrot clown figure before the curly curtain, and the blue seat rows surrounding the central arena.

I learnt that Matisse made his cut-outs from paper sheets that were painted with gouache by his assistant. Matisse chose one particular brand whose colours could be reproduced exactly in industrialized printing processes. The prints in the Jazz book were made by transferring the paper cut-outs to thin sheets of metal to create stencils. This is an interesting idea which would make the masks more durable and reusable.

More artists using cut-outs this way?

I wasn’t able to detect any similar work, despite having read that Matisse’s cut-outs were enormously influential. In particular, Picasso’s name was mentioned quite often, but I didn’t find any work done in the same technique.

But I do remember several of Picasso’s drawings which are comparable in style to Matisse’s work. These were very simple drawings that might have worked well as cut-outs, for example the peace bird and some of the female portraits. I had never seen the drawings in light of Matisse’s work and now realize there might have been quite an influence, maybe mutual, between the two artists.

Exposition!

What a great coincidence – in one week, at Tate Modern in London, opens a great exhibition of Matisse’s cut outs. I won’t be able to go there, but the exhibition will also come to New York in October 2014 and I’ll definitely try to visit it!

References

Artist website http://www.henri-matisse.net
Page on cut-outs http://www.henri-matisse.net/cut_outs.html
Wikipedia article with biographical data http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Matisse
Wikipedia article on collage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collage
Video showing Matisse making a cutout and arranging a composition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN0okOq8Hyc

Matisse Cut out exhibition at MOMA, New York, from October 25, 2014–February 8, 2015
https://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1469
Matisse Cut outs at Tate London, 17 April – 7 September 2014
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/henri-matisse-cut-outs

What intrigued me most was the gelatine plate. It is a real do-it-yourself product, made from household gelatine and water. The gelatine is used in higher concentration than for food, resulting in a printing surface that is sufficiently firm to roll on ink with a braider. The gelatine surface seems to have a property that helps the ink transfer easily to the paper without the need to apply much pressure. So to make a print, the paper is gently wiped with the flat hand, no press is needed.

The gelatine plate lasts for some time until it eventually degrades. Then it can be recycled by melting the material in the microwave and pouring it out again. There are also recipes adding glycerin to make the plate more durable.

In short, I was fascinated and wanted to try this out as soon as possible. I thought to move on quickly in the course materials and apply the central technique of the next project, using masks, to the gelatine plate. I wasn’t overly happy with the glass plates I used for the first project and hoped gelatine would be more pleasant to handle.

Luckily I had some gelatine available, and so made my first gelatine plate today. The basic recipe is two heaped tablespoons of gelatine for one cup of water. These are U.S. measurements to which I’m slowly getting accustomed… one cup of water is slightly less than 0.25 litres. One half of the water is boiled, and the gelatine is dissolved in the cold other half of the water. Then the hot water is poured into the gelatine mass and gently stirred so that everything dissolves. Then the liquid is poured into a mold and put on a leveled surface to sit.

My result was quite foamy initially, but then it settled. I took off the foam with a spoon first and then cleaned the surface with the edge of a paper, following tipps in Linda Germain’s videos.

I used a small plastic produce tray as a mold. I let it first sit on the kitchen countertop and later put it in the refridgerator for around 6 hours, and it became quite firm. Then I warmed up a knife and cut the plate out of the mold, and placed it on another plate, covered with plastic, and back it went into the fridge – ready for its first use.

References

Linda Germain, Printmaking without a press: Gelatine printmaking tutorial http://www.lindagermain.com/workshops/gelatin-printmaking-tips/

Apparently not much later, Degas was introduced to monoprinting techniques by Vicomte Lepic (1839-1889), contemporary of Degas in Paris and amateur printmaker. A very unusual piece was signed by them both, entitled ‘The Ballet Master’ (c. 1874). It is said to be mainly Degas’ work, who followed technical instructions by Lepic. It was made by spreading ink onto a printing plate and then scratching into the ink and wiping it off, using cloth and finger tips. After the print had dried, the lights were reworked with pastels or washes.

There are also pure monotypes without pastel overdrawing, for example ‘The Sleep’ (1883-85) and ‘The Three Ballet Dancers’ (1878-80). I’m finding the ‘The Sleep’ difficult to read, but love the ballet dancers for the clarity of composition and the exquisite texture and tonality of the ballet dresses.

While these prints seem to be made using softer implements, ‘The Jet Earring’ (1887-90) combines softer and scratchy marks to depict the profile of a woman with light reflections on the hair. The woman wears a little hat with something feathery on top – the marks work extremely well to make the clothes style of the late 19^th century come alive. The monotypes represent a change in style – they are looser and more improvisational than earlier paintings. Yet it is apparent what a good observer Degas was.

On a side note, ‘The Jet Earring’ reminds me of one of the best known figure/ground switching examples, where the viewer’s perception switches between a young and an elderly woman in the same image. It is called the ‘Young Girl – Old Woman Illusion’, and the earliest source is attributed to an anonymous German postcard from 1988, then transformed by British cartooninst W. E. Hill in 1915. The resemblance to Degas’ monoprint may be accidental, but I find it nevertheless striking.

Then finally I would like to take a closer look at ‘The Star’ (L’étoile), among the best known ballet pastels by Degas. I was surprised to find two different versions of this painting: The fully developed one (dated c. 1876-77) which is located in the Museum of Pau, France, and a second one (dated 1976-78), which looks like a rough study, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in the U.S.. The dates do not permit to say which one was made earlier, but the two convey a sense of how an earlier stage of the painting looked which was then fully worked out as a pastel.

Possible impact

I can immediately relate to Degas’ monotype technique because it addresses a problem with which I struggled in the final assignment of the drawing course. I tried to depict a celery root, which had fine, linear root threads before a darker background. I experimented with oil pastels and Sgraffito technique, and scratched out lines in a dark background. Looking at Degas’ monotypes, I realize that this is a much more elegant solution than what I tried achieving with oil pastels, because the ink can be taken off the support much more easily.

There was a brief remark in the ‘First Monotypes’ project, suggesting to use a brush handle to make marks into the ink on the plate. I tried this without much enthusiasm and wasn’t quite sure whether I liked the effect or not. Degas’ monotypes however make me realize the potential of the technique. It might work better with oil-based printing ink because of the slower drying speed.

References

Article by Sharon Himes on Degas’ monoprints http://www.artcafe.net/artcafe/ah/degas/

British Museum: Edgar Degas, Le Sommeil (Sleep) , 1883-85 https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pd/e/edgar_degas,_le_sommeil_sleep.aspx

British Museum: Edgar Degas, brief biography https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/articles/h/hilaire_germain_edgar_degas.aspx

William Young for Akua Inks, History of the monotype (1996) http://www.akuainks.com/newsletters/newsletterhist.html , with a workable definition of monoprint vs. monotype

National Gallery of Art, Washington: The Ballet Master https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2001/unfinished/fullscreen/1964-8-1782.htm

Philadelphia Museum of art: Another version of ‘The Star’ (L’étoile) http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/72183.html?mulR=318365458|6

Edgar Degas, A Cotton Office in New Orleans (1873), oil on Canvas, 73 x 92 cm, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Cotton_Office_in_New_Orleans  (Musee des Beaux-Arts, Pau, France)

Young Girl – Old Woman Illusion, short Article from Wolfram Mathworld http://mathworld.wolfram.com/YoungGirl-OldWomanIllusion.html

It was shown how she developed textile patterns from her own photos of natural objects, using photoshop to manipulate image colours. Then she uploaded her designs to a website for fabric printing-on-demand to obtain the printed fabric she had designed.

I was stunned. I like sewing and had always dreamt of designing fabrics, but never pursued this further because I thought there was no way for me into this. I also photograph a lot and used to play around with photoshop when I had an image of an interesting texture. Seeing Barbara Schneider’s work made me feel like “Oh wow, I could do that as well, and I’d love to!”

As soon as I could, I did some research and found the TV show’s website and the actual episode. My main interest was to know more about Barbara Schneider’s work, and find the website for textile printing that came up in the show.

Barbara Schneider’s art is centered around natural forms, she explores moving water, leaves and things like that. Colours are subdued and the textiles look very organic. Unforunately the artist does not permit to use images from her site without permission, so I won’t post anything here. But the important thing is the reminder about possible avenues I might pursue with printing  – it’s not only paper, but also textiles. I found this little excursion into textile arts very inspiring.

I also found the website that makes fabric prints on demand. Pricing is not cheap, but affordable for an occasional project because there are no large setup fees. It is possible to have not only fabrics, but also wallpaper, gift wrap and adhesive decals made from own designs. This is extremely cool!

I think the idea of fabric design had immediate impact on the monoprints I made – the last prints in series three, the red and black prints, were quite rhythmic and pattern-like. I don’t want the pattern approach to dominate my printmaking, but it is interesting and I might do some separate projects on my own.

References

Quilting Arts on Create TV
http://www.createtv.com/CreateProgram.nsf/vLinkTitle/Quilting+Arts?OpenDocument&Index=

Quilting Arts TV Homepage
http://www.quiltingdaily.com/content/QuiltingArtsTV.aspx

Quilting Arts TV Episode 1213 – presenting Barbara Schneider, Quilting Artist
http://www.quiltingdaily.com/blogs/qatv_series_1200/archive/2013/07/25/quilting-arts-tv-episode-1213-mixed-bag.aspx

Barbara Schneider artist homepage http://www.barbaraschneider-artist.com/Artist.asp?ArtistID=33119&Akey=HK234MVA

Barbara Schneider on Blogspot http://barbaraschneider-artist.blogspot.com/ with an interesting article about a textile exhibit http://barbaraschneider-artist.blogspot.com/2012/04/art-quilt-elements-exhibit.html

On a side note: Barbara Schneider is also a contributer to the Thermofax Confidential Blog, devoted to printmaking with a thermofax machine. This sounds interesting and I’d like to follow up this later.
http://thermofaxconfidential.blogspot.com/

Spoonflower: Printing your own designs on demand http://www.spoonflower.com/welcome