klee's uhrpflanzen

... i found them last night when collecting the bits and pieces to complete my printmaking logbook.

klee's concerns with time - when time falls apart as in Die Zeit, see the post here - occupied me before. so, while searching for examples of how artists use simple printmaking techniques - notably monotype - i finally understood how klee's oelpausen - as an oil-transfer technique work: essentially as monotype backdrawing done on a paper covered with oil paint. - that much for technique.

it produces characteristic shadows. but again, the concept grabs me: uhrpflanzen - watch plants. the ambiguity of language in german as it refers to ancient plants also; and in english: watch plants. watch for them and watch them change. my brain is turning around this.

the synergy between concept and technique is one of observation, taking note: the visual imagery is rather similar, albeit differently produced, to my one of my wild carrots drawing.

but here's first the watch plants.

paul klee, uhrpflanzen, 1924,

oil-transfer and water colour on paper and board,

46x30.5cm, musees royaux des beaux-arts de belgique, brussels

Now: some newspaper

... no, not to wrap yesterday's cheese, but yesterday's monotype experiments.

Well, for all the time we were there it did not stop raining. Now, RAIN was a bit too strong a word, more a persistent drizzle and the paper put up some brave resistance. The sketching went well, preparing the acrylics with some Lascaux extreme retarder (love the title) worked well too - it remained workable for about 20mins or so, and the copper plates are nice and solid to work as plate.

But, the moment it all came tumbling down, or rather: blowing up in my face was when I tried to pull the print: too much wind blowing in my face, into the sketchbook and the assorted paper mess with which I tried to keep my hands, clothes, bags etc reasonably clean.

Ok: lesson learned: minimise on paper setup in gusty gales; acrylics mixed with retarder also means: it can leave marks on your favourite clothing a lot longer than normal. LOL.

But, these still made all of it worthwhile, don't you think so?

Wet Feet, Monotype on catridge paper
a bit of newspaper and charcoal, too
20x15cm


More Wet Feet, Monotype on catridge paper
a bit of newspaper and charcoal, too
20x15cm

Two cool moody made with dreich and Scottish wind on a March Sunday afternoon monotypes.

It's the corner of the Loch where the river opens up into it, it has some beautiful bares trees standing in water, some rather adventurous waves came rolling in and a firm breeze in your face.

It's a great spot - I'm not sure if H. fully appreciated it, but I did! It's very moody with low clouds over the distant hills; the phtalo blue was a good choice (despite the stains it left everywhere); and the acrylics/medium is good enough to work with - it'll go into my Chile bag; not sure how it will perform under heat, but I will find out.

Here's an earlier sketch with a bit more definition:

No wet feet yet, Graphite on Cartridge paper,
25x25cm

... and in colour...

... the monotype gave me what I was after for a sense of different layers for a reductive lino cut.

Monotype, Edge lines 3
48x40cm on Tosa Shi paper

But as you can see: the marks are all a bit too squashy. I had already taken some of the excess paint off with a bit of blotting paper, had to rub quite extensively to transfer most of the ink onto the actual print, but it's a bit homogenous in terms of markmaking.

Nonetheless: I find using oil paints for this very worthwhile by being able to use actual pigments - again, the cadmiums are doing their work.

I've now started with the next linocut: I'm cutting a 20x25cm vinyl plate, and the first colour is a [paleish] ultramarine. I thought an edition of 10 maybe acceptable, but now have the washing lines across my flat stuffed with drying sheets - I'm using the Tosa Shi, another thinner Japanese paper and very smooth printing paper - it's interesting to see how different they respond to the ink.

That's for the art stuff today...

Here a bit music:

Du weisst schon, dass ich ganz, ganz froh bin ueber das, was du heute gemacht hast, ne??
So oder so gehoert da viel Mut zu; und auch wenn's erstmal etwas unbefriedigend ist, gibt's vielleicht noch ne Moeglichkeit zum Nachtreten.
Und in diesem Sinne: etwas neue Musik, und auf die freie Wahlmoeglichkeit zur Bitterfotzigkeit. Mit nem Kuss und so :)

BTW: noch ein zweites?
Vielleicht zuviel Elektroclash fuer deinen Geschmack,
sie koennte auch locker unsere Tochter sein.
Bisschen Annett Sonstwie mit dem Spielen, ne?
Hier einmal klicken

Step x: more monotypes

Monotype, Edge Lines 1
45x38cm, Printing paper

Last week's misshapen pastel sketches on printmaking paper did offer up a few insights into the next relief cut. But before I want to proceed to that, I thought I'd try again some more monotypes. I was keen on trying them out on a larger scale than the previous 20x15cm.

So, with all the courage I could muster this morning, I inked up an A3 sheet of acrylic paper - I had assumed that its preparation for acrylics would have prevented the oil paint I am using for printmaking to sink in, well - nice idea; in practice, though, the paint sunk in rather quickly; and for the next prints I just used one of the large laminated boards floating about in the studio - that worked perfect and provided a large enough surface to fill.

The 'plate': a sheet of acrylic paper

I started with monochromatic: the remainder of my tube of burnt umber was mixed with a bit of stand oil and turps and pasted onto the board; I then proceeded with various rounds of markmaking (knives, tissue paper, etc), adding and removing ink as I went along. Printed one, then another and another.

I've been doing a bit of systematic exploration of different papers, there's some I've been using a fair bit by now, but there was a new, very smooth, sized printmaking paper in brilliant white on the go today, (interim verdict: I LIKE IT); the trustworthy Tosa Shi (but too few sheets of it).

I like these sparse monotypes a lot, and on the larger scale they are fascinating: so extensive and yet very reasonable (!). In reverse, I am also reconciled with the composition - last week I initially thought it was weak, but no, it isn't. I moved to another one in colour. But that's next post.

Monotype, Edge lines 2
45x38cm, Tosa Shi paper

By the way, if you want to have a look at a larger size of the image, click on it, the click on 'All sizes' on the flickr image, this takes you to the full resolution.

Monotypes of Pond reflections

When I came across Wolf Kahn's monotypes I was intrigued to go back to monotypes. I remembered how difficult I found the painting on the plate - remember my complaints back in autumn here?
I have also been meaning to use oil paints as printing medium rather than the oil-based, washable relief inks I've been using so far.

I am preparing for a couple of oil paintings of the two scenes I'm working on, but I am not quite there yet, I feel. But one way of moving towards these was trying to include some of WK's pigments of choice: notably cadmiums. I had bought cadmium reds and yellows very early on when I started oil painting but have never used them so far. There are a couple of powerful pigments I'm fairly familiar with, notably phtalos - no, that' s not right: I use them in acrylics, but have never used them as oil paints (except dioxazine purple), and I have stayed clear of the cadmiums.

But, yesterday was the day: I prepared a palette, including also a pale violet grey, a pale rose, lime green, prussian and ultramarine blue and some umber to soften this in-your-face-pigment-fest.

I had new copper plates I wanted to try and here are my results:

Trees on Water, Monotype 2
Monotype with oil paints on Tosa Shi paper,
20x15cm



Trees on Water, Monotype 3
Monotype with oil paints on Tosa Shi paper,
20x15cm

I diluted the paint with a mix of turps/stand oil, ended up wetting the paper and with the final, a ghost print, I did quite a lot backdrawing to get most of the ink onto the paper. The mix of paint/medium may need some more experimenting, but I am taken with the marks and the yellows.


I also tried some reductive monotypes: inking up the plate in ultramarine and removing ink to build up the scene - with brushes, painting knives, paper towels, and at points adding more paint (also in black and prussian blue). These are very different, much more abstract and moody. I will try this out more.

Trees on Water, Monotype 4
Monotype with oil paints on Tosa Shi paper,
20x15cm

Wolf Kahn's monotypes

While still mucking about with the relief prints (and likely to do so for another few months), I had come across these monotypes by Wolf Kahn a while back.

Just last week I had ordered a couple of copper plates to use as plates for some more monotyping experiments. And following Casey's exercise of copying one of WK's paintings to learn more about the process, I think I will put this on my list of things to do.

But, first, take a look at this gallery here which has many of his monotypes on display. I very much like the way how the printing medium provides a different expression in his work.

Neptune Fine Art - Wolf Kahn Monotypes

And in relation to one of the earlier posts regarding naming conventions, Julia Ayres offers the following definition of monotypes and monoprints:

"Monoprint is a term art dealers often use interchangeably with monotype. While the dictionary does not differentiate between the two, in the academic art world, the term monotype is used for work developed on top of an unaltered plate, utilizing its flat surface, whilte monoprint refers to monotype work that also includes elements of another printmaking process such as etching, woodcut, lithography, silk screen and so on."
Julia Ayres, Monotype: mediums and methods for painterly printmaking, Watson-Guptill Publications: New York, 2001, p. 8)

... a short and somewhat lazy post to pick up my Wolf Kahn exploration. But a post nonetheless.

Does anyone know more about his monotypes? What inks does he use, e.g.? Do you know of any publications where these are available? Have seen any IRL?