Author: lauramchugh

These fish prints were challenging for me. Initially, I liked the way the images came off the press. Using the fish cut from paper as masks on the plate left stark white places, or in some cases I textured up the fish with ink and set it on the plate to reprint and it produced a nice mottled image. But then I got these home and they looked amateurish next to the red and black pieces I’d done toward the end of the day on Sunday.

I let the fishies sit for the day, then pulled them out tonight, and started embellishing with watercolor, colored pencil and pastels. Now I really like them! I wish I’d photographed them “naked.” I’ll have to remember to do that next time, so that there is the “before” to go with the “after.”

More detail shots are posted at the end of this entry. Click on the images for even more detail.

The weekend went by too quickly at Aurobora Press, in San Francisco. Today, there was a Giant’s game going on in the background, as the studio is just a few blocks from the ballpark. So, there was a lot of foot traffic in the alley, but we were immersed in our work.

I started the day continuing with the fish, and getting more sophisticated with layering and textures, thanks to the good instruction from Master Printer Deb Sibony. But in the end, partly due to my desire to always use out all my inks, I worked with the red and black on my palette that I had not been using in the fish pieces. The result, six 13×13 monotypes with 8×8 plates, are works I’m very happy with. I used a scratch tool to incise the circles after laying in the black and red ink with a brayer using the techniques Deb taught us today.

I love to use the circles in my work, and I was able to do several ghost prints from the plates, alternating with adding Olivera oil to the centers of the circles along with more contrasting ink. When I got home, and back to my vast pile of ephemera, only a few pieces of torn paper were needed to complete the series. We return to Aurobora in about a month. In the meantime, I have a lot to do to make the fish series more complete. I’ll show some of those base images in tomorrow’s blog. It’s late and my feet hurt.

Today was my first day in Aurobora Press‘ new location and the first day of the five month Master Class workshop I’m taking there. Aurobora recently moved from Natoma Street, behind the SFMOMA, to 370 Brannan in SOMA.

The new space is light-filled and beautifully remodeled by Michael Liener. It is also within a very short walk to the South Park area, which has several nice restaurants and a tree-filled park. I’m going to enjoy being in this location for this Master Class.

Deb Sibony, Master Printer, setting up the press:

And mixing the inks:

My first plate, all inked up and ready to print:

The first few monotypes – the Fish Series:

Here are three new pieces, each 11×14 when unframed. They were inspired by an Italian magazine/newspaper I got from a yard sale over the weekend. It is called Piccola and looks to be from the 1940s. I couldn’t find any information when I googled it. Maybe I will ask my friend Roberto to see if his dad, who lived in Italy during this time, remembers it.

The pieces read:

Edward agonizes over not being able to control his emotions.

Doreen is jealous of those around her.

Jaques confides to Alexandra that he’s keeping secrets from Claudia, but pulls back from revealing what he knows about Claudia’s role in Michel’s death.