From the drawing board ...

This lovely little work was commissioned by a Canberra couple.

300gsm Arches hotpress, Noodler's ink wash ground.

28.5cm x 38cm

Making Your Mark: the artist's signature

Just home from a lovely evening with the Art Society of Tasmania where I presented an interactive talk on "Making your Mark: the artist's signature".  It was very well received and I would like to thank the AST for the invitation to talk about the importance of provenance and authenticity and how to achieve that in our record keeping and signature information. We all enjoyed warm mulled wine, canapes in a friendly environment at the Lady Franklin Gallery.

Points we considered:

·      why it is important to sign your work

·      what your signature should consist of and why – first name /last name/initials/symbols/date

·      the legibility and appropriateness of style of your signature

·      how to sign your work ie. Brush, pen, chop, embosser, stylus, burn mark …

·      dating your work

·      record keeping and what other information you should be aware of

The disciplines covered ceramics, sculptures, oils, acrylics, watercolours, prints, collage, mixed media & photographs. We explored signing works on paper, canvas, illustration board, film, wood, clay, fabric and so on.

A great talk for all artists who are keen to assist in the future of art works as history, culture and heritage. Contact me for further information if you or your group is interested further.

... from the drawing board today ...

There are a couple of local exhibitions coming up so these little pieces

- graphite on gesso grounds -

once framed up and ready for hanging will be the perfect submissions. 

Three more are still on the drawing board.

 

These little pieces have gold on them but can't be seen in the earlier images.

Here you can see the gold as well as how the graphite shines.

New work ...

... from the series Index of First Sentences

 

Some of these pieces are still available for sale. See my page Calligraphy and Calligraphy for sale!

 

Magnani Paper Swatches

 I was asked to do some Magnani paper trials for the Calligraphy Society of Victoria.

These are my results.

S U M M A R Y

The papers are beautiful to touch and work with. Some were more responsive to others given the media and the tools used. I included erasing lines as this is so common in our work and I also included embossing. The papers I like the most for the more painterly techniques that I use are almost all of them as you can see glimmers of painterly swatches with and without gesso. They work exceptionally well even the lighter weights, which took on a slight cockling.

The best of the Magnani in my opinion for formal pen, ink, gouache and gilding work would be the Revere Platinum (standard white RPT145WH) 100% cotton 145gsm & the Velata Avorio (VEL 120) wove, alpha, 120gsm & the Vergella Arvorio (VERG115) laid, alpha 115gsm.

Whilst these Magnani papers are all good for specific purposes, the papers I would like best for my personal use where I use a lot of wet media in the grounds are the two Corona, the Revere Platinum 300gsm, the two Acquerello hot and cold press and strangely enough I love the Annigoni but I would limit the wet media I place on this paper.

Some of these papers are excellent for printmaking and embossing. Perhaps the Pescia would fall into this category.

For pointed pen work I trialed both upright and angled and found most of the papers lacking for very fine pen work. From the swatches and what little I did with the pointed pen I found most papers worked in varying degrees of success but, the most responsive were the Revere Platinum 145gsm, the Velata Avorio 120gsm, the Vergata Avorio 90gsm and the Vergella Avorio 115gsm.

Where to purchase these beautiful Magnani Papers, click here!

N O T E

Noodlers ink. I quite like the Noodlers ink particularly for washes and stronger grounds. As you can see it has behaved very badly when used with a Brause 4mm and worked thickly onto the paper. I suggest therefore, this ink is never used in a book where the pages agitate each other as you can see it offsets at the lighted touch. And to add insult it blurs when sprayed for protection.  I primarily use Noodlers ink in my Lamy Safari sketching pens without a problem with smudging and I mix it with media such as gesso, matte mediums, molding pastes and crackling pastes for works on canvas, paper and mdf board. Thinner washes do no behave this way with the Noodlers ink but lesson learnt, proceed with care.

The Briem Report 2012

Great certificate, thanks Briem!!!! 

The Briem Report is available for anyone who is interested in an absolutely fabulous calligraphy hard copy book penned by the hands of many of the world's most wonderful and generous calligraphers. All kudos goes to Gunnlaugur SE Briem ... thank you Briem. Many of my friends and colleagues are featured therein.  My work though featured in the online version of the first edition will be featured in the hard copy of the second edition to be published next year.

To download the Briem Report 2012 go to:  http://66.147.242.192/~operinan/8/2/211.html

Clan MacLaren

The MacLaren Chieftain Coat-of-Arms

This Coat-of-Arms is hand painted in gouache and watercolours along with pen and ink.