Gotta love Collagraphs

Okay so this time last year while I was back in Adelaide I did a workshop at Bittondi with Sarah Amos, she's a Melbourne born artist but lives and works in the United States. I was so inspired as I have always loved the 'somewhat unpredictable' marks and textures of the collagraph. I say 'somewhat' because of course it does take practice and experience to create the desired effects but it's a medium where you can really experiment and more often than not you will have 'happy accidents'
Sarah works on life size prints and she combines painting with overprinting of intaglio collagraphs and the final prints are large, bold and abstract. Her press is huge and her studio , amazing.
As for me, I am in a total opposite situation. Renting a townhouse with white floor tiles, working in a small dining room and printing on a press which is situated in the garage which does need to house my car as well. It just means I have to move things around and pack everything away at the end of the day. Not ideal but it's only now that I have found the time to work on trying out this technique. It's fine and this way it's not as expensive when those 'accidents' aren't so happy. As usual I'm never just working on one thing and while mucking around with inks and various blocks I also have a deadline to meet as I'm taking part in an international printmaking exchange and exhibition-Bears and Blooms. The Exhibition will be held at Red Poles opening on October 18th and the theme is' Postcards from the edge of extinction, documenting rare, endangered or extinct flora or fauna species.  Proceeds of the exhibition will be donated to Free the Beers Fund www.freethebears.org.au


Sea Turtle - Edition 10