Thursday 26 March 2015

Printmaking exhibitions @ Studio 1, 1-23 April, 2015


 Three printmaking exhibitions!

at 
Studio 1 
(formerly Art Station, Ponsonby)

1 - 23rd April, 2015

Opening event 5-7pm Wednesday 1st April.

All works for sale.



"Lasting Impressions"
by members of Waitakere Printers Ink
Gallery 3

Image by Carole-Lynne Kerrigan


"print2print"
by Auckland members of CPCANZ
Gallery 1

Image by Toni Hartill


"Directions"
Gallery 4

Image by Ruby Oakley


Friday 20 March 2015

Monoprints, Collage & Happy Accidents


My noticeboard above my printmaking station of works in progress.

After all the fun of experimenting with collographs I've taken a change of direction for a while as I work towards a group exhibition with CPCANZ (Central Print Council Aotearoa New Zealand). The theme of the exhibition is "light and dark" and so I wanted to explore ways of capturing the light from under the water as seen when swimming in rockpools (something I did a bit of over summer.) I haven't ever done much monoprinting and so I wanted to have a good old "play" using various techniques to see what effects I came up with. 

I have been using Charbonnel Aquawash, hand cut paper stencils and sheets of ohp acetate. 

The prints for the exhibition are 20cm x 20cm, printed to the edge of the paper and hung unframed on clips. I found that I worked on 6 or more prints at a time building up multiple layers of colours and stencils. With monoprinting like this I think you have to always be ready to accept "happy accidents" as and when they happen and use them to guide you in new directions. 

At this point I now have a series of 9 "submerged" prints which I would like to exhibit as a group at some point. (I can only put 2 in the print council exhibition so I need to select which two I will show this time.)


"Submerged" 1 of series of 9.
Monoprint by Toni Hartill
As I have worked on these prints new ideas have come up and so I am now exploring ways of incorporating other elements into the prints including wood block prints, collage, collograph, etc.



I have been dyeing sheets of plain tissue with coffee, tea and colour washes of acrylic paints, and over-printing with woodblock prints and collograph materials.

Cornflour paste, coffee and tea
with cotton thread being dyed for stitching.
Dyed and printed tissue to use for collage.

Next, I have been seeing where my ideas take me as I begin to assemble works using monoprints as a base then adding collage, stitching, paper cutouts, relief prints and found papers. I've also played with making a "matrix" from dyed tissue, sandwiching other papers amongst the layers to see if it is something I could then print on. I seem to have an aversion to being restrained within a rectangular frame so I have been layering the tissue and hand made papers on both the front and back of the prints so that they seem to be growing in all directions and becoming quite lovely "artifacts."


More monoprints being transformed with layering, collage and stitching.
by Toni Hartill




Tuesday 17 March 2015

Collograph prints for "Lasting Impressions" exhibition.


"Lasting Impressions" is a group exhibition by members of my print group Waitakere Printers Ink. This exhibition at Studio 1, is in a room adjacent to the "print2print" exhibition by the CPCANZ Auckland members where I am exhibiting 2 monoprints with the theme "light and dark". Also showing in another adjacent room is a solo print show "Directions" by Ruby Oakley, the founder of the print group and an Auckland rep for the CPCANZ.

I will be exhibiting my recent collographs all based on a sea theme. For me, the sea always leaves a lasting impression, in fact I think it is printed in my DNA! And these collograph plates certainly leave a lasting impression on the paper as the paper becomes very embossed by the textures of the plates.


A collograph plate in the making by Toni Hartill.

Details of 2 collograph plates by Toni Hartill

Collograph plate ready for printing by Toni Hartill


"Sea shore" collograph by Toni Hartill


"Sea weed I" collograph by Toni Hartill


"Sea spray" collograph by Toni Hartill

These prints are another step in my exploration of collograph techniques, an ongoing learning experience through trial and error. I am also working on embracing the imperfect and welcoming spontaneity and the happy accident! Anyone who knows my "perfectionism" tendencies will know how challenging this can be.