Artist in Residence - Quetico Park Northwestern Ontario Canada

misty morning at French Lake

I am presently into week #2 of a 14 day artist in residence placement in Quetico Provincial Park about 2 hours west of Thunder Bay, Ontario just south of Highway 11.

artist studio at French lake

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetico_Provincial_Park

Quetico is the wilderness jewel of parks in Northwestern Ontario and it borders the state of Minnesota at its southern boundary. It is a vast stretch of pristine wilderness that encourages low impact camping and canoeing into the interior. I am doing my residency at Dawson Trail campgrounds in a small one room modern heated studio building on the shores of French Lake. Where I am situated is a bit private and removed from the general mass campground areas of Chippewa and Ojibwe. There are public beaches a little bit down ways on either side but I am separated by thick woods. The studio is accessible by 2 trails. One is called the artists path and runs between the beaches through the woods and allows the public access to the studio should they choose and if the artist feels comfortable having an open studio arrangement. The shorter trail extends down about 10 m (30 ft) from the road up on a rise north of the cabin. Artists from all over N. America have been using this space for several years now.

The program for the artist residency is titled Inspired by Quetico. It provides a waiver of camping and parking fees in exchange for the usage of the artist studio and a small campsite nearby with a large modern tent and fire pit for the artists use. The artist is required to contribute a piece of work to the park in exchange for the two week placement. They also are paid an honorarium of $300 towards cost of materials and framing.

Needless to say the landscape is quite stunning and encountering unique boreal woodland flora and fauna and witnessing incredibly beautiful sunsets makes this very inspiring indeed.

I am finding the solitude of this place very calming and it has put me in touch with nature on a level I don’t often get living in the city. 

Back in 2010 I applied to the program and was accepted. However due to poor health that summer I decided it wasn’t the right time for me to do the residency. Earlier this year I reapplied and was accepted. A few dates were suggested as to when I might like to come to the park and knowing that the weather is generally ideal in early to mid Sept (late summer) I chose this time frame. The biting insects are pretty much over and the days are warm and the nights cool allowing for great star gazing and incredible sunsets.

Some of last weeks highlights included a full day of canoeing with a friend across French Lake and down along the Pickerel River at the south end of the lake. We explored the shore, did a little fishing for pickerel and pike (Walleye to you US folks), and took photos of flora and fauna for source material for new studies.

On Saturday Sept 7 I gave a workshop in drypoint on acrylic plate at the Log Cabin Education centre in the park. Participants were shown a demo and then created their own plates which were printed using Akua intaglio inks onto rag printmaking paper. It was well enjoyed by those who attended.

I am making good use this week of the studio facilities and have set up a small print studio on site. Yesterday was spent producing a quantity of etchings from a study of a canoe on a Quetico lake shore. This is not a new study but I had a solar plate etching from a few years back I thought I would print a few more from as it was an open edition. Once these are dry I will add in colour by hand with water based media such as thinned down acrylic inks or watercolour.

 

The remaining days this week will see me create brand new work in the form of a relief and plate based studies based on my direct experiences here.

Moon dance - styrofoam plate print addendum

Additional photos to accompany my previous blog post that show the original sketch, the Scratch foam styrofoam plate after being cut apart and how it is reassembled. I have also included photos of some of the brayers that were used, the plastic rubbing stick and a tube of the Graphic Chemical water soluble relief printing ink.

using the piece of Styrofoam plate I marked the corners and inside the area on paper made a pencil sketch of my image.

I traced the image from the sketch onto a sheet of tracing paper. This was set over top of the foam plate and taped to the underside on two sides with masking tape. Using a ball point pen I retraced the lines from the tracing into the foam puncturing the paper and allowing the pens ink to sink down into the foam surface.

Using a xacto knife I cut apart the foam creating the following main shapes to apply various colours mixed from the Graphic Chemical inks. Pieces were carefully reassembled. Slightly misted black Stonehenge paper was set over top. I applied pressure using the smooth round plastic rubbing stick and by rubbing in a circular motion. The paper was carefully lifted and a colour print emerged. After the initial image was printed I was able to more to the print. With a steady hand and a good eye that piece was set inked side down onto the print (matching it exactly to the printed area underneath) and pressure was applied to stamp on more ink highlighting.

Example of the ink, rubbing stick, and various sizes of brayers that were used.

More styrofoam relief jigsaw block printing

A recent print on black paper derived from Styrofoam plate. I used a jigsaw method to cut apart key components of the plate, then applied Graphic Chemical water soluble ink onto the pieces. These were reassembled and the paper was put over top. Using hand burnishing this is the resulting print on paper.
Title is Moon Dance (Inukshuk Aurora series).
The image size measures  11 x 23 cm (4.25 x 9 inches.)

this is being used as a demo for a free printmaking weekend for youth at a local arts centre where I live this coming weekend. Styrofoam will be the surface used so perhaps this will inspire some creative minds?

Drypoint Workshops Saturday March 23 & March 30 2013

Participants engaged in intaglio printmaking workshop

in Dryden Ontario Sat. Mar 24 2013

Yours truly (standing) and some of the 13 participants who attended

my drypoint on plastic plate with monotype workshop held in Thunder Bay

on Saturday March 30, 2013.

The past week has been a busy one. Yesterday I gave the second of two workshops here in my home city. Last Saturday in the city of Dryden Ontario (4 hours west of here) I gave the same workshop in drypoint on plastic plate to 11 participants.

Participants were given pre-cut plates (13 x 17 cm) or 5 x 7 inches and drypoint tools. They scribed images into the surface and also were encouraged to experiment with altering the surface of the plastic using sandpaper, implementing drawing techniques such as crosshatching and stippling to create tonal areas.

They were not only able to produce a single colour image on paper but I also showed them how to apply spot wiping of colour on the surface of the plate (a la poupee), monotype from a separate plate and also direct application of thinned out ink using brush to the surface of the plastic.

I would say this endeavour turned out very successful and every person who participated really enjoyed this type of printmaking and took home several prints each that originated from their individual plates. Below are photos showing highlights of these workshops.

more drypoint experimentation on plastic plate

drypoint on packaging plastic

I was lucky to discover recently during a trip to Toronto a product for the visual arts found at Above Ground Art on McCaul St. This is simply known as packaging plastic. It is a bit thicker than acetate but is thinner and more flexible than plexiglass.
Knowing that I have several upcoming public art workshops I decided to get a sample piece and try out a drypoint image on this plastic sheet. If this worked out I would get more of this product for workshop participants to use.
My goal was to do something fairly simple in design that I could use as a demo piece. It would also be a surface that I might experiment a bit with a couple of different etching inks. These included Akua intaglio ink (soy) and Caligo safewash etching ink (which is derived from flax).
A photo I had taken last year of a swallowtail butterfly became the basis for the sketch which was placed underneath the plastic.
I noticed that when the thin protective plastic wrapping was removed from the clear plastic the sheet developed a slight bow. Apparently the product was cut from a larger roll into individual sheets. This was a bit of an issue but I compensated by placing double sided clear tape underneath to secure it flat to my working surface and give me good contact with my sketch underneath.

Using various sharp pointed tools including an etching needle, diamond tip drypoint needle and homemade darning needle embedded into the end of a piece of wood dowel I scribed lines into the surface. For the dark areas I rough up the surface using both the diamond point in a circular scribbling type motion using the wrist. I also lightly sanded a few areas with fine grit sandpaper to add a bit more texture.

the butterfly drypoint plate

Below are some of the results in photos. The image at the beginning of this post is a basic black ink print on Maidstone white rag. It was printed using Akua intaglio carbon black with a 25% addition of pthalo blue.

I also experimented with printing the drypoint into a monotype made from a separate plate. A piece of Duralar wet media film was cut to the same dimensions of the drypoint plate. I put some tabs of double sided photo mounting tape in between to keep the top plate from slipping during the application of the thinned akua intaglio inks (made a bit more fluid with the addition of a small amount of blending medium). I used the drypoint below as my guide for where to paint in colours of ink. The monotype plate was carefully taken off and placing a piece of lightly misted rag paper I rubbed the back of the paper using my hand and a rubbing stick to transfer ink.

monotype on duralar wet media film painted

on with a brush using thinned akua intaglio inks

Then I took the drypoint plate and using careful steady hand/eye coordination set that facedown over the monotype. I ever so carefully flipped this over and set it on the bed of my small etching press. I lay the 3 layers of felts over top and passed this under the top roller.

drypoint and monotype

Finally I printed a black and white from the plate but this time around using Caligo safewash etching ink (carbon black) and added a minute amount of wiping compound.

The print was fastened to a thin piece of board and allowed several days to dry. I applied watercolour into the print and came up with the following image that is pretty close to what I see in my photo reference:

Swallowtail butterfly

hand coloured drypoint

2013

Drypoint on acetate

I have been experimenting with drypoint again. This time have used clear acetate .003 inch (.08 mm) in thickness.
A sketch I made of a winter finch was used. I also had some photo reference to use for determining the colours.
I was able to place a sketch underneath and use this as a guide to scribe the lines into the plastic surface.
I constructed a tool to use by drilling a hole into a 6" (15 cm) length of wood dowel into which I pushed in a darning needle. I sharpened the end of the needle by rotating it on a piece of aluminum oxide grit sandpaper.

The plate had Akua carbon black intaglio ink spread across the surface using the edge of an old Itunes card. I then wiped back the surface with a piece of bundled tartalan cloth. I then applied the end of a cotton swab stick to remove ink from areas for more white to show through. I wanted to leave a little plate tone for effect.

acetate plate with inked scribed line and plate tone

resulting print made on Maidstone white rag

A piece of Maidstone all purpose rag paper was misted and placed over top of the plate. I set my felts over top and a piece of newsprint and adjusted the pressure of the roller on my small etching press.
After printing I allowed time for drying (in this case about a week).

Watercolour was also added to another version pulled from the same plate but this time the scribed lines were inked using Paynes Gray.

Meanderings

snowshoe two step

winter sunset

A long period has passed since my last blog entry. I have been active in local schools undertaking a printmaking project. Basically I finished one project in one school and immediately began another project in a different school. This last placement will fulfill my 150 hours from an Ontario Arts Council Artist in Education grant that I received in the fall of 2011. The good news is that the projects by schools I have undertaken in 2012 and the early part of 2013 will be getting public exhibition here in Thunder Bay outside of the school. I have been fortunate to have made some connections with certain individuals involved in the arts here that will allow this to happen.

I am also beginning a new studio project that will occupy the next year. This is a series of miniature studies on paper created using various printmaking applications that examine unique and rare flora/fauna of Northwestern Ontario. At the moment there isn't a lot of photo resources I can get out of doors due to the season so I am focusing on imagery I do have on hand that I acquired earlier this year.
I am once again using the following techniques to create the series:

• polymer plate
• drypoint (acrylic plate and plastic film)
• serigraphy
• relief block (linocut and wood engraving)
• collagraph

The photos above and below reflect on winter here in the North.

finch perched on clothesline

Usnea (old mans beard lichen)