Retreat Preparation

As usual, I left things until the last minute again. I'm off to a retreat tomorrow, hopefully to print and paint without distractions (other than a St. Patrick's Day Parade with some local Steampunks). I am throwing clothes into the washing machine and trying to find a pair of pajamas that do not have Mickey Mouse all over them.

It feels so weird to be going away without my three kids and leaving the hubby behind. When I told the kids, they were completely shocked. It is their father that travels for work, never me. I have not even been away from them before this, so it is a shock to me as much as them I think. It's amazing how being a mum can easily take your independence away, even for someone that used to disappear regularly when the sun hit from the right direction.

I was going to raid the fridge to see what could come with me, but figured Pot Noodles would be fine and save me the hassle of cooking. I will pack a bottle of Absinthe to help dilute the sodium in the noodles, plus it is green and I was always told to have something green in every meal for good digestion. Excellent, food is done!

I made a bit of a head start on an etching for a swan. I know much of the first day will be setting up the printing station, so having at least part of an image will help with press settings. I will also pack a couple of troublesome paintings that I have not had the time to figure out. I'm wondering if I can find room for watercolour, oils and acrylics when I already have a bunch of printmaking supplies. Oh well, I can always use the car as a locker.

I wonder if I can fit all my clothes into a carry-on sized bag? My top hat (I'm thinking of the parade here) would probably take up the whole bag on it's own, how little costume I can get away with, hmm. Tricky stuff this packing lark.

I am going to disconnect for the retreat, so no more posts for a few days. I will try my best to come back!

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Encaustic Monoprint Technique

Today I visited a printmaking friend's studio. Amy is experimenting with encaustic monoprints. I have never heard of this before so I was excited to have a demo. Here is the basic process: 1. Heat up the homemade heat box. 2. Rub the beeswax pigment sticks on the metal surface of the heat plate to melt them. Create a design on the plate with one or more colors. Step 3. Lay a piece of rice or rag paper face down on the painted design and cover with newsprint. Burnish. Step 4. Carefully pull the paper away from the heat plate. Steps 5-6. Clean the heat plate with paper towels. Add more color to the heat plate and repeat the process to add patterns or more color to the print. The smell of the wax is yummy and the pigments are really thick and rich to work with. I had a little play to get a feel for what the print is like (image below). Now I want to build a heat box and play!!

Peacock Paintings/prints

I'm working on the peacock paintings at the moment and some relief prints. I am slowly filling in the shapes and colors of the paintings, starting from the top and working down with each color. I'm grouping them with my 8 color reduction cut relief print. Also a feather linocut and painting, both in their early stages. The linocuts below are variation experiments based on the imagery above. It still feels like I am a long way to completion, but hopefully they will pull together fast at the detail stage.

DeMeng Workshop

We made crazy vehicles in Michael DeMeng's workshop. Here are a selection of some of the works in progress: Here we had a critique with Michael discussing everyone's progress. I loved this steampunked up critter! This is the cool studio by the harbor that we worked in for four days, pretty cool view! Later in the day we had a project with Tracy and Teesha Moore with a bunch of artists from different workshops.

Cricketts Inky Art Blot

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