Symbols and endings
This post is in two parts- it starts with the last of the South Pennine Paths collection - and finishes with some reflections and initial thoughts about future plans.
This plate is from a late afternoon walk across Withens Moor, where a series of flagstones ease the the path across an otherwise tricky stretch of peat bog. Many of these stones are recycled gateposts and such.
This stone is deeply cut for a purpose I cannot discern, but these graphic symbols appear almost as writing. But if writing, it is unclear about what and for whom, particularly as the only common visitors to this open moorland are curlew and skylark.
Withens Moor 24 July 2018 20:07. Photo-etching 2019
This is an interesting plate, with the central symbols sliced by deep shadows from the evening sun. The overall effect became overwhelming when re-worked, so I ground the plate to one side- which opened up more possibilities.
I then under-printed with freshly ground inks, warming up the final impressions.
Withens Moor 24 July 2018 20:07. Photo-etching and monoprint. 2020
Withens Moor 24 July 2018 20:07. Photo-etching and monoprint. 2020
So, to the end of this blog about putting a virtual exhibition together. Completing this collection has taken longer than anticipated. Selecting and editing the images for presentation, preparing the narrative and organising the web-pages all together were a great way to review the work, remember the the places and consider the methods of production. All of this was under pandemic constraints- with no opportunity for re-visiting, for improving or revising the prints. Not that I’ve wanted to, this review has made it clear that the work had reached a conclusion.
I’m happy to have reached this point and to have the opportunity to consider what next. I can now re-organise these South Pennine Paths prints into a definitive collection on this website. Further, I am still committed to landscape-based work, but the next phase is likely closer to home.
Any exhibition of this work beyond the virtual realm is sadly still some way off.
I hope the blog has provided some insight into the work, how it arose and was produced. I am yet to decide what place a blog might play in developing or documenting future work, so am happy to hear views.
With all good wishes
Mark
Memory
I was convinced that the photographs for both last week’s posting and for this were both taken in midsummer, when everything was dry. This is the case for many images in this collection; those taken in the summer of 2018.
These were both certainly taken within minutes of each other on the same stretch of road up to Warland reservoir. However, In preparing this post, I spotted inconsistencies in the timings assigned to them, so went back to check the source images. This confirmed that, rather than dry midsummer, this was late spring, in far from clement weather. Indeed, these photos were among many taken of damp places that day.
So, it seems my records have corrected my memory, and I have redrafted both this posting and the last.
In any case, this hollow was drying out more slowly than most that day:
Wet Warland Road. 28 April 2017 14:30. Photo-etching 2019
Two sets of masked under-printing with monoprint follow:
Wet Warland Road. 28 April 2017 14:30. Photo-etching and monoprint 2019
Which are strongly reminiscent of the beaches on the Northumberland coast.
Wet Warland Road. 28 April 2017 14:30. Photo-etching and monoprint 2019
Empty
The steep sides of the Pennine valleys are dissected by tracks winding slowly uphill. This image is from one such road that crosses the floor of the Calder valley then climbs towards Warland Reservoir. When I passed this section a couple of years ago, the track was broken in several places, leaving a series of hollows, lined with grit and hard-core, with some hinting at its more usual state.
Warland Road 28 April 2017 14:30 Photo-etching 2020
This plate required several sessions of printing to get right. It took a while to realise that plate itself needed attention. Grinding one side of the plate made for a section of narrower tonal range, which then made under-printing possible.
Warland Road 28 April 2017 14:31 Photo-etching and monoprint 2020
Warland Road28 April 2017 14:31 Photo-etching and monoprint 2019
An afterthought- this series might be seen as a plea for road repairs in a particular place. It is not, rather it draws attention to the way we interact with landscapes. These interactions are not stable. Perhaps to underscore this point, the last time I passed this spot, I can here record this section of track had undergone extensive repair.
Dry
This series is based on a photograph taken whilst walking beside the drain that feeds the Warland Reservoir. On this warm, dry evening, no water was passing through the drain, and the reservoir itself was almost empty.
These seed-heads had dropped onto the middle of the path and as there was hardly a breath of wind, they were spontaneously breaking up where they lay.
This evening walk was very different from my usual experience of Pennine upland paths. They are more usually partially submerged in peaty water, whose surface is broken by fresh winds or obscured through mist or rain.
So this evening seems worth recording.
Warland Drain 24 July 2018 20:20. Photo-etching 2020
The rest of this series is under-printed with monoprint, using hand-ground ink, warming up the final result.
Warland Drain 24 July 2018 20:20. Photo-etching and monoprint 2020
Warland Drain 24 July 2018 20:20. Photo-etching and monoprint 2020
This under-printing also tends to smooth out the image. So, some I have also over-painted with gouache to re-emphasise both the seed-heads and the grittiness of the path.
Warland Drain 24 July 2018 20:20. Photo-etching with monoprint and handpainted detail 2020
Warland Drain 24 July 2018 20:20. Photo-etching with monoprint and handpainted detail 2020
Transience and persistence
This series has only one finalised print. Its story is one of persistence. The first prints I made from this plate were unsatisfactory, so I put it to one side. Having worked on different approaches to other images, which I thought would help here, I pulled it our again. However, I couldn’t replicate the crispness and definition achieved in earlier impressions. It took me a whole day of step-wise process alterations to work out the problem. It was the plate being clogged with old, dried out ink. I left the studio thinking the day’s work a failure. Nevertheless, I wrapped up the prints and took them home. The following week I pressed on to correct my error, first cleaning the plate thoroughly.
I didn’t open the first tissue-wrapped prints until I was later pressed to make a quick decision. I was due to visit a former colleague, recently admitted to the nearby St Cuthbert’s hospice. As he was always interested in my artwork, I wanted to show him a few recent representative prints.
On opening the package I had wrapped in the studio, it was clear that my error had become a strength. The indistinct image from the sparsely inked plate was exactly the right treatment for this transient subject. It was one of the half-dozen prints I took to show my colleague, and deserves to stand alone in this collection.
Ash Leaf, Low Laithe Dam 28 May 2018 15:22. Photo-etching and monoprint. 2020
Just to complete the story the later impression of the ‘rectified’ printing is shown below, a far more distinct image, but much less of what had originally impressed me.
Ash Leaf, Low Laithe Dam 28 May 2018 15:22. Photo-etching and monoprint. Proof. 2020
And the the original photo-etching alone:
Ash Leaf, Low Laithe Dam 28 May 2018 15:22. Photo-etching and monoprint. Proof 2020
Stranded
The source photograph for this series was taken is very close to the last- on the outskirts of Howarth.
The subject is intentionally mysterious, with only traces of it evident in the final prints.
Enfield Side 27 May 2018 11:24 Photo-etching and monoprint 2019
This mystery is hard-won, the result of much experimentation in both plate treatment and in forms of under-printing. I will return to the theme of experimentation in a later post.
There are two layers of under-printing in this series- both using burnt sienna as the base colour. Here you can see the subject dipping into the darker of the two.
Most of the ink used in this collection are ready-made tube inks. In this case, the main ink used is hand-prepared.
Enfield Side 27 May 2018 11:24 Photo-etching and monoprint 2019
The plain etching below now makes the source clearer. What was left behind is a woollen glove, now ground into a shallow puddle by the side of the road. The puddle that the glove fell in is long-since dried out.
Though this is now evident, the plate was ground considerably to the bottom right (as viewing), making the wrist of the glove far less obvious. This is as it was on the day- hard to pick out from the stones stranded in this now dried up puddle.
Enfield Side 27 May 2018 11:24 Photo-etching 2019
Broken
This post breaks the recent chronological sequence. In the interests of posting promptly, I have opted for a further short sequence- but taken from a different walk at a different time of day, but still not far from those I have posted to date. This series is from an image taken on a summer’s day walk near Howarth, on road atop the Lower Laithe Dam.
It is of plastic fragments- the biggest part being of a broken sign that in normal times demonstrates the local water utility company’s interest. The company that manages the many reservoirs punctuating this landscape; reservoirs that I have taken great interest in photographing and painting over the years. Hence, the significance of this fragment, which is itself is part of a reservoir cartoon.
Lower Laithe Dam 28 May 2018 15:15 Photo-etching 2020
From the earliest printings of this plate, I was convinced that some further colour would add to the depth of the image. None of the earlier combinations seemed to add much- but latterly a little underprinting with pale ink gave a greater idea of the depth here. Here I used a circular mask to strengthen the pattern where the milk bottle top covers part of the sign.
Lower Laithe Dam 28 May 2018 15:15 Photo-etching and monoprint 2020
Exhibition Day Rochdale Canal, Todmorden
This is now the proposed weekend for the exhibition. As I’m continuing to select and post, it is clear that the exhibition (even in virtual form) is not yet complete.
Today’s image is from a photograph taken towards the end of an early morning walk, in car park near the Rochdale Canal in Todmorden.
Rochdale Canal, Todmorden. 28 April 2017 08:25. Photo-etching 2019
What drew me to this point was both the pattern and a piece of coloured glass embedded in a corner of the puddle.
The underprinting in this series is differs slightly from most of others, as a mask is used, leaving parts of paper visible, as no ink is applied.
Rochdale Canal, Todmorden. 28 April 2017 08:25. Photo-etching and monoprint 2019
I developed this further with two complementary masks and two underprinted monoprint layers. This is brings me closer to the idea that first drew me to this patch of ground- an expanse of broken tarmac with a bright fragment of glass shining through.
Rochdale Canal, Todmorden. 28 April 2017 08:25. Photo-etching and monoprint 2019
Wicken Lowe
This is another relatively short series of prints. The original photograph was taken on the same evening walk as that for the Calderbrook series. It followed a spell of tricky wayfinding as the uphill path reached the edge of the Intake. Just after a gate onto the open moor, I found this collection of rock and grasses.
The first is a straighforward photo-etching
Wicken Lowe 24 July 2018 19:07 Photoetching
The colour I applied to this reflects the warm light of the summer evening. First, the print underlaid with a two-stage monoprint.
Wicken Lowe 24 July 2018 19:07 Photoetching and monoprint
And a simpler version, with a single colour base.
Wicken Lowe 24 July 2018 19:07 Photoetching and monoprint
Calderbrook series
Today, I’m sharing three images printed from the Calderbrook plate. This is the first series from the South Pennine Paths plates.
I took the original photograph on an evening walk along a familiar road. Here, where a track met the road, the surface was worn away, and someone had taken the trouble to mark up the deficit, presumably to assist identification for repairs.
Once extracted from that context, the arrow points to somewhere important that is now nowhere in particular.
Calderbrook 24 July 2018 18:10 (i) 2020. (Photo-etching)
I’ve already used images from this Calderbrook series for the original exhibition promotion artwork and in earlier posts, this seems the right place to start.
Three of the seven available prints have made the final cut. The photo-etching itself (above) and two with underlaid monoprint.
Calderbrook 24 July 2018 18:10 (ii) 2020 (photo-etching and monoprint)
Calderbrook 24 July 2018 18:10 (iii) 2020 (photo-etching and monoprint)
Let me know what you think of the approach.
Transparent
Section from positive used for Calderbrook series
I have promised an extended piece on method, which isn’t ready. But a question came up that gives me the opportunity to explain parts of the process. The question is about what I print on and whether I can print on transparent media.
Here the answer is both yes and no. Yes, one of the preliminary stages requires transparent media: to transfer the computer manipulated image back into a physical photographic process. The image comes back into the real world on on acetate film using an inject printer. A section from the acetate used to produce the Calderbrook series is today’s picture. Here, it is laid obliquely over my metal ruler against a white background. In case you are struggling to decipher it- the spray-painted arrow here top right.
But the answer to the original question is also no, the final print from a photo-etching is achieved from the ink held in a pitted copper plate. This needs soft damp paper, usually specialist printing paper. The pressure applied is also intense, sufficient to embed the plate in the paper.
Hope that answers the question and illuminates a little.
