What's New
Saturday, July 17, 2004
Untitled water base monotype
WATER BASE REVISITED
Some fifteen years ago, I did a great deal of experimentation with water base printing. In fact, while at Sonoma State University, as it was called then, I devoted several months to so-called non-toxic printing methods.
By the late 1980s it had become well-established that breathing the fumes and handling oil-base paints and inks, paint thinners and such was unhealthy. New products had started to come on the market that were not only safe but also gave the water base printer greater latitude.
There were some limitations. It was difficult to get a good roll-up with water base inks, and many artists claimed that you never got the density and richness you could achieve with oil base inks. Also, some pigments, particularly those sold as dyes, were said to fade. I didn't experiment with dyes, but prints with good quality watercolor paints or inks hold their color as well as any painting.
I had hoped to get other students interested in water base, but it was hard to buck tradition. The water base etching inks, which have only recently come on the market, were not available at the time, and the teacher was there to teach etching and other intaglio methods, all requiring oil base inks.
In fact, I became a little frustrated. It seemed that water base was suited best for monotypes, and I wanted to experiment with all printing methods. So I turned in a report complete with many slides and wrote a series of three articles for the newsletter published by the California Society of Printmakers. Then I put my fat portfolio of water base prints away and returned to traditional printmaking.
Last week, however, I returned to making water base monotypes again, and find that I am just as enthusiastic about it as I was 15 years ago. There are several ways to proceed. In the sample above, watercolors are floated on a wet plate. You can then let the water evaporate naturally or speed up the process with a hair dryer. After the plate has dried. It is run through the press with damp, rag paper. Even though the pigments have dried, the damp paper combined with the pressure of the press produces a faithful transfer.
It’s fun. Try it. That’s what I told my fellow students fifteen years ago.
SCROLL DOWN
WATER BASE REVISITED
Some fifteen years ago, I did a great deal of experimentation with water base printing. In fact, while at Sonoma State University, as it was called then, I devoted several months to so-called non-toxic printing methods.
By the late 1980s it had become well-established that breathing the fumes and handling oil-base paints and inks, paint thinners and such was unhealthy. New products had started to come on the market that were not only safe but also gave the water base printer greater latitude.
There were some limitations. It was difficult to get a good roll-up with water base inks, and many artists claimed that you never got the density and richness you could achieve with oil base inks. Also, some pigments, particularly those sold as dyes, were said to fade. I didn't experiment with dyes, but prints with good quality watercolor paints or inks hold their color as well as any painting.
I had hoped to get other students interested in water base, but it was hard to buck tradition. The water base etching inks, which have only recently come on the market, were not available at the time, and the teacher was there to teach etching and other intaglio methods, all requiring oil base inks.
In fact, I became a little frustrated. It seemed that water base was suited best for monotypes, and I wanted to experiment with all printing methods. So I turned in a report complete with many slides and wrote a series of three articles for the newsletter published by the California Society of Printmakers. Then I put my fat portfolio of water base prints away and returned to traditional printmaking.
Last week, however, I returned to making water base monotypes again, and find that I am just as enthusiastic about it as I was 15 years ago. There are several ways to proceed. In the sample above, watercolors are floated on a wet plate. You can then let the water evaporate naturally or speed up the process with a hair dryer. After the plate has dried. It is run through the press with damp, rag paper. Even though the pigments have dried, the damp paper combined with the pressure of the press produces a faithful transfer.
It’s fun. Try it. That’s what I told my fellow students fifteen years ago.
SCROLL DOWN
COMING OF AGE
Grand Mama was most distressed
To see how Millie looked and dressed.
She didn’t like the tinted hair,
The painted nails, black underwear.
Her brows were plucked, her eyelids blue,
Her lashes not the ones that Millie grew.
Her lips were purplish, not red,
Which made poor Granny shake her head.
Silly Nana. Please don’t whine.
Remember that she’s almost nine.
Rick Lyttle 7/17/04
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Grand Mama was most distressed
To see how Millie looked and dressed.
She didn’t like the tinted hair,
The painted nails, black underwear.
Her brows were plucked, her eyelids blue,
Her lashes not the ones that Millie grew.
Her lips were purplish, not red,
Which made poor Granny shake her head.
Silly Nana. Please don’t whine.
Remember that she’s almost nine.
Rick Lyttle 7/17/04
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Friday, July 16, 2004
NEWSLETTER
My monthly newsletter will help keep you posted on art developments in West Marin as well as on my own adventures without having to log onto this site every-other-day. To subscribe simply click here and send me your e-mail address. So far, the newsletter has been received with gratifying enthusiasm. It usually includes a recent poems and a summary of recent art reviews.
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My monthly newsletter will help keep you posted on art developments in West Marin as well as on my own adventures without having to log onto this site every-other-day. To subscribe simply click here and send me your e-mail address. So far, the newsletter has been received with gratifying enthusiasm. It usually includes a recent poems and a summary of recent art reviews.
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Thursday, July 15, 2004
ABSTRACT NUMBERS
Susy was a wiz with numbers
And did additions in her slumbers
Often she would go to bed
With arcane equations in her head.
And while she dreamed between the sheets
She performed such monumental feats
That when the wings of night had flown
She woke with every value known.
Her friends, therefore, found it strange
That she had trouble making change.
Rick Lyttle
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Susy was a wiz with numbers
And did additions in her slumbers
Often she would go to bed
With arcane equations in her head.
And while she dreamed between the sheets
She performed such monumental feats
That when the wings of night had flown
She woke with every value known.
Her friends, therefore, found it strange
That she had trouble making change.
Rick Lyttle
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Wednesday, July 14, 2004
AROADSIDE PATROL
Folks remain extremely generous with their trash. It’s really gratifying to be able to fill a bag during a brief, half-mile walk along Sir Francis Drake Boulevard one morning each month.
Cigaret butts still outnumber all other donations. If tobacco hadn’t been losing ground lately, the roadsides would now be lined with white drifts of cigaret butts. It makes you wonder why there aren’t more grass fires. Not complaining, mind you.
Unfortunately, all the negative publicity on tobacco seems to have given smokers an attitude. Dan Thompson, owner of Peri’s Deli in Inverness Park where I start my monthly patrol, says he’s had trouble lately with smokers leaving burning cigarets on an outside windowsill before entering his store. Of course, the smokers often forget them or leave them there too long and the result is a black scar on the sill.
“When I caught a customer leaving his butt on the sill the other day and asked him not to do it, he got angry with me.” Dan is still shaking his head in puzzlement.
Of course, Dan gets his revenge by selling cigarets to his smoking customers at tax-inflated price. The world is strange and full of wonders.
SCROLL DOWN
Folks remain extremely generous with their trash. It’s really gratifying to be able to fill a bag during a brief, half-mile walk along Sir Francis Drake Boulevard one morning each month.
Cigaret butts still outnumber all other donations. If tobacco hadn’t been losing ground lately, the roadsides would now be lined with white drifts of cigaret butts. It makes you wonder why there aren’t more grass fires. Not complaining, mind you.
Unfortunately, all the negative publicity on tobacco seems to have given smokers an attitude. Dan Thompson, owner of Peri’s Deli in Inverness Park where I start my monthly patrol, says he’s had trouble lately with smokers leaving burning cigarets on an outside windowsill before entering his store. Of course, the smokers often forget them or leave them there too long and the result is a black scar on the sill.
“When I caught a customer leaving his butt on the sill the other day and asked him not to do it, he got angry with me.” Dan is still shaking his head in puzzlement.
Of course, Dan gets his revenge by selling cigarets to his smoking customers at tax-inflated price. The world is strange and full of wonders.
SCROLL DOWN
