I screen printed devore paste onto the fabric when working on ‘If We Could Fly‘. I was a little rusty having not screenprinted for some time. Most of the prints I create are intaglio, block print and monoprint.
This was the last screen print I made, from about 2005. A mono screenprint entitled ‘Eating out in London’.
This summer has been very hot so far and my studio is unbearable sometimes even with the window open. But the hot weather takes me back to thinking of days in Greece, I spent a month there a few years ago, traveling around some islands and sketching and painting along the way.
My sketchbooks sit on shelves in the studio and only venture out when I need some inspiration or showing work at an art event.
The original ideas I had about creating textures and images of the land I walk have changed somewhat.
I am transformed back to the place inside the sketchbook. I remember everything that was around me, the smells, the sounds, the people and the place.
The challenge I set myself from here is how can I use these sketchbooks within my textile work whilst still keeping an element of my printmaking practice and the quick line drawings.
To begin I found some pages I liked and traced them into line drawings so that I could screen print them onto my fabric. I decided to print it many times so that each duplicate can be experimented on in different ways.
I found that using inktense pencils by Derwent worked very well for adding small areas of colour. I also used tried hand stitching and machine stitching to add colour and texture. I still feel the images are a little flat and need some layering of imagery and texture. The original sketches have receipts, bus and ferry tickets and labels incorporated within them. My prints have layers of block prints, gum arabic prints and collagraphs. So this is where I am at at the moment with my textiles.
The aim from this point is to enlarge some of the small sketches in some areas of the image and create some digital artwork that can be woven on the Jacquard loom as well as similar images in preparation for screen printing onto layers of fabrics. My subject matter after all the experimentation is undecided at present but I will endeavour to use a current topic to explore. A topic that will inspire the next body of work that I create.
Nicki Dennett 