Toni Hartill Art: sketchbook

Showing posts with label sketchbook. Show all posts

Sunday, 24 April 2022

Watercolour Sketchbooks - Inspirations and Making of

This series of concertina sketchbooks were inspired by a road trip

to Rotorua, Aotearoa New Zealand, in between Lockdowns in 2020.

These books are currently on display in my solo exhibition

ARTFUL NARRATIVES

2 April - 2 June, 2022

Angela Morton Room

Level 1

Takapuna Library

Auckland

New Zealand

Artful Narratives display, Angela Morton Room

All sketchbooks are for sale.

Please enquire for details or visit the exhibition.

Inspiration

The quirky, humpy-bumpy landscape of the Hamurana region of the

central North Island, just north of Rotorua on State Highway 5,

caught my eye, and my imagination, piquing my curiosity as to

how these odd landforms had formed.

Making of

Strips of paper were cut from a large sheet of

Hahnmuhle Britannia watercolour paper, 300gsm.

Starting with very loose and spontaneous watercolour sketching

I worked on multiple strips of paper at the same time.

I then worked individually and spontaneously on

each strip to add detail.

Textured papers were printed for the covers using a

fabric covered collograph plate.

Preparing and assembling the covers

Constructing the books

The Completed Sketchbooks

Hamurana inspired landscape I by Toni Hartill

Hamurana inspired landscape II by Toni Hartill

"Landscape from my subconscious" by Toni Hartill

"Roadtrip Impressions I" by Toni Hartill

"Roadtrip Impressions II" by Toni Hartill

"Wet Weather Driving - views from the passenger seat" by Toni Hartill

I will be giving another talk during my exhibition and you are invited!

Come for a guided tour through the display cabinets. View the artworks being handled and manipulated, the way they are meant to be fully appreciated. Meet the artist (ME!) and hear the stories and inspirations behind the making of the works. And feel free to ask me questions - I'll try to answer them!

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BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

COMING THIS WEEK!

Monday, 12 November 2018

Artists Books - Field Notes of an Imaginary Botanist

"Field Notes - Manawa, NZ Mangrove" by Toni Hartill

Last month I began working on ideas

for a number of projects scheduled for next year.

Rather than working on distinctively different work

for each I allowed ideas for one project to generate and feed ideas

for another and so before I knew it I was having

an inspiration explosion!

Which means, believe it or not,

a VERY chaotic and messy studio.

But oh so productive.

There were buckets of plant specimens and make-shift flower presses in action; sheets of paper were shredded into all manner of shapes and sizes and lengths of fabric were printed and singed on an open-flame (hmmm that fabric is quite flammable btw!). Collographs, drypoints, linocuts, monoprinting. Gessoing, watercolours, gluing, stitching, cutting, tearing.... it was all happening... all at once... in every direction... on every available surface... so, inevitably... I kept going off on a tangent.

So, I decided to follow my muse and complete one of these tangents:

an edition of wee "sketchbooks" or "field notes" of manawa/ NZ mangroves... for my imaginary botanist friend/self.

I have a real soft spot for mangroves. I love everything about them.

I often pick up the pods and take them home to draw and so I have a journal with multiple images I could readily refer back to.

For some time I've had the idea of creating fake or imaginary "field notes",

inspired by the many old survey logbooks of my maternal grandfather's,

so this was a perfect chance to explore this further.

Logbooks of my grandfather AH Pickmere.

I created a series of drypoints which I then hand-coloured. I have only once before created an EDITION of any of my artist books so this felt a little like I was turning a brief spark of inspiration into a waaaay bigger project. And, it wasn't even for any of the many deadlines I have planned for next year - go figure.

Hand-colouring the drypoint images.

Testing ideas for structure and layout.

Adding some distressing and weathering for fake authenticity.

Printing the "fabric" lining for the notebooks.


Folding the structures into shape.

Loving the colours and textures of the "old linen" linings.

The outside surface was printed to look like old leather.

and then I decided I/my imaginary botanist chum would need a pocket for some sketching supplies and somewhere to keep the odd "treasure" I/they would inevitably collect so....