Mountains and Sky with Grid (Monotype)

Mountains and Sky with Grid (Monotype) Originally uploaded by randubnick

Last night was the first of three more printmaking classes in a session I am taking at Red Brick Studios. I am using memories of the Colorado mountains for my imagery because I love the mountains, and often paint them. With familiar subject matter, I can focus on process, which certainly gave me enough to struggle with last night. I decided to experiment with adding texture with various materials. Of the materials available, I chose netting (often used for packaging oranges) because I liked the square grid pattern. For this print, I used one plate, and applied red and blue pigment to create mountains and sky, using a small, narrow brayer to create some variation in value. Then I tore triangular pieces of netting, ran the brayer over them to try to get them to stick, and then put the whole thing through the printing press, net and all. After running the plate through the press, I was VERY disappointed because the netting had left very strong white areas that overwhelmed everything else in the image. But instead of taking the print off the press and discarding it, I removed the netting from the plate and ran the press over the plate (and the same piece of paper) a second time, in the other direction, and the result was the image posted here here. The added color from the second time through really helped. The netting was still visible, but more subtle, and the mountains and sky could also be seen clearly. I was much happier with the result. The grid inexplicably floating in the sky is surreal and illogical, but makes me think about visual puns (sky and water), and verbal puns, like cell phone networks or internet crisscrossing the mountains. In any case, I am glad I kept going and found a way to salvage this image.