Southampton City Art Gallery and the wonders of Mono Printing
20th February, 2019
Very early on in 2018, as spring gradually moved towards summer I went on a Mono-Printing course at Southampton City Art Gallery. It was run by the lovely Linn O'Carroll. She was a great initiator of play as a prelude to printmaking, rather than individual techniques. I knew mono-printing was very painterly and would open avenues for my own work, especially at a time when I was about to make very considerbale changes from how I had been working.
Unwittingly during the day I became interested in the paint/printing ink on the plate I was working from. I started to take prints from the actual surface and some of the images produced were fascinating. These images could be further worked into. I loved the studio such a great place to work and the people in the group were also a very friendly bunch to work with and talk too.
We could take our work home, and though the images I made were not actual finshed works, in terms of mark making they were the beginning of the many ways I am working at the moment. The course came at the right time, just when I was re-evaluating my practice. The Mono Printing fitted in well with the desire to get in touch with the materiality of the paint and other media used. The notion of play is so important because out of this kind of experimentation greater and more fascinating things can, and do happen.