Day 9
Thursday 29th August 2024
A stone lithography picture comes together
The penultimate day arrives and by the end I want to have at least one reasonable piece printed.
The stone with the text looks crisp, so I prep it and ink it up. I opt for a pewter coloured ink as I think it’ll contrast well with the black of the main image.
A first proof print gives a pleasing crisp text and image. The next step is to navigate the troubled waters of registration and print it on to the main image in roughly the right place.
However there is a problem with my prediction regarding colour contrast.
The text is barely visible on the grey-black background. So a different colour is definitely necessary; I opt for the same red as used for ‘Our Lady of Pain’
A trial print with the red text placed over the blank masked space, gives the composition a different and perhaps more ambiguous reading. What does the blank space represent? Where are we being invited to enter into? The print with the text to the right of the figure is more literal and therefore perhaps more provocative.
I have produced a picture!
And, if proof should be needed, here are a couple of action shots of me working on the final print – Thanks Anne.
Learning never stops – I try to contain my excitement; How old am I?
The past two weeks have shown that as an artist, the learning process never stops. What’s the point in not wanting to learn?
As if to emphasise this point, working alongside me in the studio today, with Paul, was artist Issam Kourbaj. I did know in advance that he was coming into the studio and I did try and pretend it was a normal everyday occurrence for me to be in the presence of a great artist (it really isn’t a daily occurrence!). His recent exhibition, ‘Urgent Archive’ at Kettle’s Yard and The Heong Gallery in Cambridge has been the exhibition highlight of the year so far for me. Read my review of the Issam Kourbaj exhibition.
He was at the Curwen experimenting with plate lithography, a process similar in many ways to stone lithography. What was interesting for me was seeing how an artist of his standing approaches experimentation and mark making. I approached it hesitantly and worried about making ‘mistakes’, he wasn’t. The process and the learning associated from engaging with it was the crucial part, end results were not important at this stage.
Here are a couple of nice photos of Issam working with Paul at the press.
As already mentioned, I did know Issam was coming to the studio today and in my mind I had hoped to get a selfie with him, but I found it a little embarrassing asking; going up to a famous artist asking to have a selfie taken with him is something a 5 year old might do; I’m 59 for goodness sake! I do regret it now though.
However…Anne came to the rescue again and managed to photograph Paul and Issam discussing the finer points of plate lithography with me being nosey in the background.
Just as last week, where my work ‘appeared’ alongside Paula Rego’s, today Paul did ask if he and Issam could use a laserprint of ‘Our Lady of Pain’ to experiment with photo transfer on the plates they were using.
At the end of the day, one of Issam’s plates looked like this:
On the right, his experimental mark making; on the left a feint transfer of ‘Our Lady of Pain’. Do you think I can now claim to have collaborated with Issam? I’m saying yes!
Day 9 was positive in so many ways.
I managed to produce a finished print and I worked alongside (collaborated with) Issam Kourbaj.
Day 10 clearly won’t be as exciting, however I am determined to throw some caution to the wind and, whilst working with existing images, produce something a little more experimental.