Handmade Accordion Book With Etchings

Last fall my husband and I took a trip to Amsterdam Holland and I was really intrigued by the wonderful characteristics of the Amsterdam canal houses; colors, shapes and how many are leaning forward or against each other. It was explained to us that property is taxed on its width not height - thus the reason the houses are so narrow and so tall. We were also told that canal houses were built on swampy land along the canals many years ago. Time has passed and many are starting to sink into the wet land as well as their support beams are decaying causing them to begin to lean. We saw construction on many houses that foundations were being replaced and newer support beams were being added for support.

I took many photos of the different houses and returned home thinking of how I could create art  with images of these wonderful houses. I decided to create an accordion book illustrated with colored intaglio etchings. I enrolled in a solar plate etching class and created six etching plates from graphite drawings that I had done of the Amsterdam canal houses. I even added a car, mini bus and some bikes. I experimented by printing the plates with different colored inks and on different types of papers. I created some with  chine-collé rice papers (glued) onto the printmaking paper as I ran the etching through the press.

I took the finished prints and cut out the canal house shapes and hand colored some of the windows, door and facades of the houses for added interest. I then decided on an arrangement and glued the canal houses onto a house-shaped accordion paper. The top photo shows the many cutouts I worked with as I decided on a layout for the pages.

The final step was to create a "house" shaped box in which to fit the accordion book. I shaped and glued book board into the box and covered it with handmade book cloth. I added a little door knob to the box.

I worked on this project from January though April of this year. It took me a while to create and execute the concept but I really enjoyed it and probably have enough prints for another book. 

I hope you like it also! It will be part of my upcoming exhibit at the Providence Art Club, Providence, RI opening Sunday, June 2nd in the Castelnovo Gallery.

Pet Portrait and Printmakers Portfolio

 Here is Mylo's finished portrait which is 6x8" colored pencil on Rtistx board. I used the Icarus board to warm the pencil and smooth it out on the surface.

Below: I have been part of a collaborative effort of thirty one printmakers at the Providence Art Club and Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, VA, to create forty five portfolios of 5x7" prints. Each artist receives a portfolio and we sell the remaining portfolios. I believe there are only a few left for purchase. My print is below and is titled "Through the Reeds". My processes are solar print etching (turtles) and linoleum cut (reeds) then hand colored with colored pencils. We've been working on this portfolio project for a few years and are very excited to have it completed and opening this weekend.

Printmaking Portfolio on Permanent Display at Woman & Infants Hospital

Woman & Infants Hospital in Providence, RI has purchased one of our Providence Art Club printmaking portfolios in which 22 artists created various types of one of a kind prints for this project. We are happy to announce that we sold all 13 portfolios to raise money for the education department of the Providence Art Club. One of our portfolios was purchased by Woman & Infants Hospital. Each artist's print was framed and hung just outside the main lobby in a hallway leading to conference rooms. The staff held an artists' reception for us just before Christmas, here are pictures of the prints on display and some of the attendees. My piece, an etching with chiné collé titled A Floating World is pictured above.

This is a link to the original post about our portfolio project.

So Much I Want To Do and Just So Many Hours in a Day!

The current drawing I have been working on is a composition Angel Trumpet flowers and Chinese landern on Rtistx white board. Above is a portion of the drawing which wouldn't fit in my scanner, the size is approximately 11x15". Below I have put my reference photo so you can see the basic composition although I am planning to make some changes, mainly simplifying the background (no bricks) and changing all the dark greens in the bottom third of the drawing perhaps one or more flowers. The elements in the photo which enticed me to draw this scene are the sunlit flowers and the blue/orange complimentary colors of flowers and lantern. I started with the Angel Trumpets (my focal points) and then letting the drawing evolve around them.
The image below is one of my printmaking experimentations. As I mentioned in the previous blog entry I have been taking a solar printmaking class one day a week for a year now. There are 6 students and the instructor in the printmaking room and we literally shut ourselves off from the world and print to our hearts' content. I enjoy it so much because the printing process is a completely different than working on my colored pencil drawings and sometimes I just want to try another form of art that is different and hands-on.

So after a year of classes I have ended up with many experimental etchings in all different colors and styles, particularly etchings of my Koi fish prints which I experimented on for the portfolio project. I took my various prints and cut them up into different shapes and sizes then gluing the prints onto notecards. This card below is an etching with textured rice paper chiné colléd onto my printing paper and then painted with watercolor on the fish when the print was dry. Thus I have a group of little handmade notecards in which I can to people who will hopefully enjoy them!
While putting together notecards, I got to thinking about art and how I can spend hour upon hour creating (when I have the free time), thus I am never bored. I recently had dinner with two of my close friends who both work in another industry other than art. My two friends were discussing being "empty nesters" with adolescent children going to college or having graduated from college hereby leaving my friends with less household duties and more free time. Both were contemplating what they were going to do with all their time. Of course my first (selfish) thought was ... hmmm, can I put them to work helping me? I did suggest they come to my studio and try their hand at some form of art.

After the conversation, I thought about how lucky I am that I will never be bored because there are several types of art mediums I would like to try and several more I would like to be proficient at. Even when I'm not creating, I'm teaching art classes or looking at art at galleries, exhibits and museums. And I can do all this for the rest of my life, so how lucky am I?

With that being said, I am off to Paris tomorrow and will be towing my somewhat reluctant husband to all the art museums I can see in a week.