More Hot Air Balloons

Carved in linoleum, and printed on variety of Japanese washi paper (kozo, or mulberry and chiyogami and katazome-shi patterned paper), Thai paper, screenprinted faux-bois and actual thin wood paper is a collection of hot air balloons in a cloudy sky in the afternoon. This piece employs the techniques of printmaking and collage. I am making a series of these multimedia; each one is unique. This is the third in the series. Dimensions are approximately 12.5 inches by 15.5 inches (32 cm by 39 cm).

The balloons are inspired by some of the wonderfully elaborate balloons by pioneers of flight (or, floating, at least) like the Montgolfier brothers in the late 18th and early 19th century. These beautiful and romantic vehicles were carefully decorated and often included baskets like sea-going ships, to sail the skies.

Taurus constellation linocut

Since I finished my Chinese Zodiac series I've been thinking of making a Western Zodiac series. I'm interested in how the myths and stories we told ourselves evolved into observational science (and thus how astrology, though it may irk my astronomer friends, was a progenitor of astronomy, as alchemy lead to chemistry and some physics). I started with my own 'sun sign', Taurus.

The silver stars and silhouette of Taurus the bull are illustrated in this handmade block print. I printed an edition of eight prints, 7.5 inches by 10 inches (19 cm by 24.8 cm) on lovely, handmade, Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper with a deckle edge. The word Taurus and symbol ♉ appear at the top of the image. The lines linking the constellation appear in black-on-silver or silver-on-black as appropriate.

Taurus is one of the oldest constellation. It contains the bright clusters Hyades (on the face of the bull) and the Pleiades (on its shoulder), as well as the red giant star, Aldebaran (the bull's right eye), all of which can be clearly seen with the naked eye. This grouping of stars has been recognized and interpreted as a bull since the Bronze Age, in the mythologies of Ancient Greece, Egypt and Babylon. It is one of 48 constellations recognized by Ptolemy. Since Taurus is one of the prominent constellations which crosses the ecliptic, it is one of the signs of the Western zodiac. If you imagined all celestial bodies we see in the night sky as mapped onto a sphere (the Celestial Sphere) around our Earth, the ecliptic would be the line you would draw to map the apparent path of the Sun through the various constellations. The ecliptic is marked as the dashed line in this print.

clouds and unicorns

The OB asked for a unicorn for his birthday, so I've been making more.

Carved in linoleum, and printed on variety of Japanese washi paper (kozo, or mulberry and chiyogami and katazome-shi) and European patterned paper is a unicorn, strangely amongst a welter of lovely umbrellas. This piece employs the techniques of printmaking and collage. I am making a series of these multimedia; each one is unique. These are the 11th to 14th in the series.
Dimensions are approximately 12.5 inches by 18.5 inches (32 cm by 47 cm).

Also, I made a third edition of my cloud classification linocut, because the 2^nd edition sold out. I found some lovely brilliant sky blue paper from Nepal, but sadly, it was not fun to work with. It do not accept ink well, and sometimes fibres would be stuck to the block. So much for the idea of more affordable coloured paper.

that deep blue, late afternoon sky

I'm really happy to have a proper place for my paper now. RJH found me an antique map cabinet, so I can store my large sheets of Japanese washi. I have smaller file folders for small pieces of washi (chiyogami, katazome-shi, unryu and so forth) and other papers. I also have some Thai and Nepali screenprinted and batik papers, some Chinese screenprinted papers, French and Italian patterned papers, a little bit of Brazilian marbled papers, and some beautiful paper I brought home from Amsterdam (whose provenance I don't know, since I don't read Dutch) and a collection of ephemera. This piece, for instance, uses vintage sheet music given to me, years ago, by Lady Redjeep and a bit of a vintage book illustration, which was part of a thoughtful welcome package by vintagepaperparade for 'A Spring Handmade Market' a couple of years ago.

Balloons

This is my first artwork of 2012. I wanted to continue the series of prints with collaged papers, like the 'Unicorn amongst umbrellas' and the sailing ships, and I had the idea of hot air balloons. So, I sought out images, paricularly of vintage balloons in the late 18th and early 19th century. Some of the pioneers like the Montgolfier brothers, built the most spectacular and astounding vehicles. I love that they deemed it necessary to produce elaborately decorated balloons. Many of the early ones had sails and baskets shaped like ships, in order to sail the skies.



I inked my lino block in a gradient of colours to produce the 'key' print of he sky at sunset on Japanese kozo (or mulberry paper) approximately 12 inches by 13 inches (30.5 cm by 33 cm). I printed the balloons within the block on variety of Japanese washi paper (kozo, chiyogami and katazome-shi patterned paper) and vintage sheet music, and collaged them. I am making a series of these multimedia; each one is unique. This is first in the series.