Collagraph and Viscosity Printing

I am in Muddy’s She-Shed, an original boat shed converted into an art studio  where Maggi Jean’s sensitive, poetic and thoughtful artwork is displayed. I love the way, within in her iconography, she used a basic shape that on one hand evokes the depiction of a mountain and at the same time by juxtaposing a similar shape above it the viewer can see the shape of a wave.

The statement beside the image describes her intent.

Heatwave, 2014, collagraph with viscosity printing

Maggi Jean’s tatement

The technique in which a collagraph constructed from bark arranged onto a plate of cardboard and then shellaced to seal it and then  printed by way of the viscosity method, enhances the imagery because the two textured  basic shapes are read by the viewer differently; one as wave and the other as a mountain. Bark texture reads as both mountain and water.

Gelatine Printing 

Gelatine prints can be arranged as sculpture as well as make beautiful books.  I like the hanging sculpture almost a relief-like mobile that can hang beneath a framed print.

I combined one titled Brown Algae by Maggi Jean with one of my etchings, inserting the print under the frame. Image book invading imprisoned framed etching under perspex!

Opened gelatine print

Book form in hanging mode

Inserted under perspex frame

My etching titled Reflection, 2011 about the point Roadknight rock form, sand, rock pools and reflections is now accompanied by Brown Algae . The sea weed textures enhance the image. By placing seaweed on top of a gelatine ‘plate’ rolled with colour the artist places paper over all and then hand prints with paper.

Author: elainedesterre

I have been producing oil paintings, mixed media, prints (etching), digital prints and drawings for many years travelling to the Australian outback and overseas for inspiration and further education. My formal education consists of a PhD in painting and a BA in printmaking and my artwork is represented in public and private collections. My purpose and ongoing challenge is to create a gender-balanced and environment-focused iconography within the Western canon of European oil painting. These themes find expression within imagery about time, memory and identity as well as in geomorphology of evolutionary and environmental significance.