• About the Residency
  • Project Creators
  • Who is Caerus?
  • Caerus Artist Group
  • Karina Nishi Marcus
  • Suzanne Edminster

Caerus Art Residency

~ Rooms with an Inner View

Caerus Art Residency

Tag Archives: printmaking

Caerus Artist Caren Catterall: In The Flow

20 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by Caerus Artist Residency in Art, Artist Residency, Creativity, Printmaking

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

creative flow, creativity, flow, inspiration, leaf prints, printmaking

“Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz” (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)

 “When you flow like water you bring all of your talents and resources to your creative work… Flow around every obstacle you encounter, including any you’ve erected yourself. “(Eric Maisel)

As an artist you may be familiar with the state of consciousness that I call The Flow, or art trance. Some people call it in the zone, the muse, or going into the Ether. We loose ourselves–and find ourselves–in these moments that carry us along. We are connected and at ease with the work, responding intuitively, always seeing the next step, and open to all possibilities. Time passes easily when we are acting in the moment and are connected with our authentic selves. Many artists speak of a spiritual feeling in their art that comes from this state of grace and it is this numinous feeling that we often try to express.

It is not always an easy state of mind to achieve, for you can never find it by looking for it; it is an elusive thing. When you try to grasp it, it slips away. The Flow comes when you are working from your own heart and soul, not for anyone else. Let the Flow come to you, and carry you, without pushing or paddling,

How can we welcome and encourage The Flow? Certainly it cannot coexist with lists, and tasks, and stresses of life, so take the time to clear your responsibilities and your mind. This is a place beyond judgment, so do not let the tiny little voices of self-doubt, the critic, or the customer hover in the room. Warm up with the routine tasks first so that you are prepared to take advantage of the creative moments—prep surfaces, gather materials and inspiration. Embrace the unique qualities of the materials and explore the possibilities that they offer.

Honor this creative connection as sacred. When you enter your studio, bring it to life with flowers, a candle, or incense, transforming your environment one that reminds you that the creative spirit is special. Give gratitude for your ability to express and share your vision.  Music transforms the space too–choose whatever transports you.

Setting up a regular routine to keep your creative expression limber will help the muse come visit more often. Like any muscle memory you will loosen up easier when you have a regular practice, and it will take less time to get over the personal obstacles.

Sometimes after a good day the Flow will follow you out the door when you leave your studio, little eddies that trace around you during the day, showing the mundane world in a new light. Watch for connections to your work in the world, and in your dreams. When you are in the Flow the synchronicity of what you need will find you.  Sometimes it is more like a rip tide, an obsessive undertow that threatens your balance, pulling at you with ideas and inspiration, calling you back to the work.

Not all work that comes out of this state of grace is “successful” or good work, and there will be another time and a place for the critical eye. Sometimes it creates a breakthrough or stepping stone to the next stage of development, a mental “aha” that leads you down another path, or stream. So just observe, wonder, accept what happens, play, let the muse steer you and go with the flow.

“There is really nothing but the flow. You are not really on the bank. That, methinks, is the greatest illusion of all. You are the bank, the flow, the boat, the rudder.” (Nicoletta Baumeister)

Caren Catterall

Caerus Note: Caren Catterall is a master printmaker working with etching, collagraph, and monotype. She is the founder and owner of “Hot Off the Press,” a membership printmaking studio.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Caerus Artist Jeremy Joan Hewes: Printing on Mulberry Paper for Collage and Mixed Media

19 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by Caerus Artist Residency in Art, Artist Residency, Collage, Printmaking

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

artist studio, color printers, computer and art, creativity, inspiration, mixed media, mulberry paper, printing mulberry paper, printmaking

“The Widening Gyre” by Jeremy Joan Hewes

Caerus note: This mulberry paper printing technique creates the most transparent, delicate collage transfer I’ve ever seen (note coastline edges above).  It’s as clear as plastic transparencies or acrylic gel, but totally natural, and absolutely melts into the surface with no raised edges.  

Printing on Mulberry Paper

Reading all the posts on this bounteous blog, I’m enthralled and a bit awed by everyone’s energy and productivity. Not to mention that the work is lively, fetching, surprising, and quite beautiful. What a collection!

As I consider my own participation in the residency, I’ve discovered that I really enjoy both making artwork and also sharing ideas and techniques. With the latter goal in mind, here’s a process I find find very useful that I learned from my friend and studiomate Joyce Libeu (www.joycelibeu.com). I hope it’s beneficial to some members of this outfit.

The process is printing images from the computer on mulberry paper or other very thin, perhaps textured papers. What’s terrific about the mulberry paper is that when it’s collaged to a painted background, the image sits up strongly, the mulberry paper disappears, and the background’s colors still show through the image.

Most color printers can handle thin paper such as mulberry, but it’s advisable to attach any thin sheet to a standard piece of paper to send it through the printer. This procedure follows, but first an example of a finished piece that combines my photo and a graphic (from a Dover book) with a canvas I painted with acrylics.

In the work I’m doing currently, I like to fashion mixed-media pieces by painting on paper or canvas or making a monoprint, then collaging images on that background. I’ve often printed my photographs or other graphic images on the thinnest paper I can find so that the paper is invisible when it’s collaged to the background.

To assure that the mulberry paper will go through the printer, I attach it to a regular sheet of paper, cutting the mulberry about one-half inch smaller than the support sheet at the bottom and both sides.

Then I tape the mulberry to the support sheet across the bottom and partway up both sides. This is a little tricky, because mulberry wrinkles and folds easily, so I use short, skinny pieces of blue masking tape to keep the mulberry flat while attaching it.

When the mulberry is taped to its support paper, I set up the images on the computer. The important thing here is to make the image size an inch or so smaller than the mulberry paper to be sure that the image doesn’t print on the tape or miss the mulberry (I’ve done both). For printing, I change the print options so that the printer applies less ink than normal (otherwise much of it goes through the mulberry and onto the support paper – see the details at the end for tips).

I insert the paper taped-end-first into the printer and make sure the top, untaped part of the mulberry doesn’t crease or flop forward. (My printer takes 13-by-19-inch paper, so the mulberry can flop over if I don’t watch carefully as printing begins.) Then I print the image.

That’s the printing part. At the studio, I cut out the images as desired, then use matte medium to attach the mulberry pieces to my background (see “Adhesive” below for more). The detail of a work-in-progress below shows the transparency of a mulberry image; the horizontal orange strips are visible through the kimonos of the two women.

The details – supplies and settings

– Mulberry papers I use: (a) tengucho (from Daniel Smith) – 10 grams/square meter – extremely thin; (b) unbleached mulberry (from Art & Soul in Sebastopol) – 15 grams/square meter. Other mulberry papers or thin Japanese papers work also but may not disappear quite as well as the very thin ones.

– Support paper for printing: ideally heavier than plain paper, such as Epson Premium Matte (a bit thicker than regular copy paper); matte paper is preferable to photo paper for this purpose.

– Printer settings: this may require experimenting, but reduce the amount of ink that’s used during printing if possible. My Epson has a “paper configuration” setting that lets me reduce or increase the “color density”; I generally set this to minus 20 so that much less ink is used. (This saves ink and keeps the image from being so heavily printed on the support paper under the mulberry, which I like to reuse when possible.)

– Adhesive: I brush matte medium onto the target area of background; next I lay down the mulberry image, starting from one edge and easing it onto the background; then I cover the mulberry with a thin second coat of medium to secure it.

Jeremy Joan Hewes

Caerus note: to see more examples of Jeremy’s beautiful mixed media, please visit http://www.jeremyjoanhewes.com/new_work/index.html .

  

Caerus Artist Jeremy Joan Hewes: The Camera as Sketchbook

12 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by Caerus Artist Residency in Art, Artist Residency, Creativity, Photography, Printmaking, Sketchbook

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

photo sketchbook, photography, printmaking

Note from Caerus: This is a re-posting of a previous blog in a better format.

The Camera as Sketchbook

Because I’ve always been drawing-challenged, I began my artistic life as a photographer. And though my work today is mainly mixed media and printmaking, I’ve found that my camera makes a terrific sketchbook.

When it isn’t practical to use paints or pens to sketch, you can easily catch the details and the atmosphere of a scene or a place with a simple digital camera. I keep a small Canon model (SD800, now about 5 years old) in my car or in my day pack when traveling. This camera takes only JPEG images, but these are fine for most purposes and ideal for remembering what I saw in my wanderings.

In the field I take lots of photos. I often use the “multiple” setting on the camera to take many images quickly, from a variety of angles and viewpoints, and for some scenes I take a 360-degree view, making sure that I let each image overlap a part of the one before it.

At home I copy my photos from the camera to my computer and use them to discover how I might create a mixed-media piece or a printing plate. One good use for a group of photos is to understand the shape and volume of an object, such as a tree. The four images below show some variations of a nicely formed tree; they could be the raw material for a new work.

Sometimes the photo of a scene works well as the model for a painting or print; at other times, you may want to experiment with cropping a photo several ways to find a good composition. The image below is cropped from a larger original.

One other way that I use photos to explore the potential for a new piece is to modify them in a photo-editing program such as Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, iPhoto, or Picasa. These applications and others like them offer adjustments that let you see your photo in many variations. For example, if I want to make an etching plate or an image transfer, I’ll look at a black-and-white or tinted version of a photo.

Or I might want to simplify the scene to emphasize shapes and planes rather than details; using the filters or add-ons (called plug-ins) in Photoshop, I can give myself good models to work from.

If you don’t already, try using a camera as a tool for inspiration and memory, as well as a sketchbook alternative. It can give you lots of ideas and perhaps even expand your way of seeing.

http://www.jeremyjoanhewes.com

https://www.facebook.com/jeremyjoanhewes

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. We publish during the summer residency season.

Follow Caerus via RSS

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

You’re the Tops, You’re the Coliseum: Top Posts and Pages

Caerus Artist Joanie Springer: On the Brink of an Artistic Plunge
Caerus Artist Cathy Shanahan: An Evolution from Traditional Quilting
Cathy Shanahan and Dana Eaton: One Studio, Two Worlds

Caerus Recently

  • (no title)
  • Lessons From Michelangelo — Part 3
  • Feb. 16th & 17th Fun: Afternoon pie and art, and Sat. evening mythical beasts, with Caerus Artists Lauri Luck, Karina Nishi Marcus, and Suzanne Edminster
  • El Anatsui: ‘On Their Fateful Journey to Nowhere’
  • Celebrate Caerus co-creator Karina Nishi Marcus’ winery reception, Saturday Jan. 26, 3-6 PM, Geyserville

Caerus in the Clouds

Abstract Painting Art Art Gallery Artist Residency Artist Studio Art Supplies Caerus Collage Creativity Fiber Fabric Art Maskmaking Mixed Media New Technology Painting Photography Printmaking Sculpture Self Portrait Sketchbook Studio Practice Studio Residency Uncategorized

Play Tag with Caerus

abstract acrylic acrylic mixed media art and emotion art blog artist studio artist time management art journal art practice art process art project art routine art studio art suitcase art supplies art theme beginning art project caerus Caerus artist guest blog canvas preparation catwoman Chronos collage painting cow sketches creativity dog paintings dyeing fabric art. fiber art food France sketchbook Ganesha symbolism Getty Villa habit individuality in art inner voice inspiration Italy sketchbook kairos LACMA lamb painting landscapes Lessons from Michelangelo meals mixed media Natalie Goldberg open studio opportunity original oil painting painting thumbnails Paris sketchbook Penetentia photography photo sketchbook plain air painting plein air painting Plein air sketching printmaking process art process painting resistance resistance in art-making ritual ritual art habit Robert Therrien self-directed artist residency Shakespeare and Co. sketch sketchbook pages sketchbook project sketch picnic spirit in art spirit in painting travel sketching Villefavard water lily photo women paintings. Woody Guthrie drawing

Archives

  • April 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Caerus Art Residency
    • Join 97 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Caerus Art Residency
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...