A preview of things to come..This is a small monotype print loosely based on a photo taken on the rainy day shoot, I love the way in which the weather conditions create a really high tonal contrast and make the wires from the trams (as seen from St Peter's Square) look rather bleak.
The monotype technique is gutsy and dramatic but it lacks the definition and control offered by other techniques such as etching and aquatint. That's the way forward with this body of work. At the end of October I will be working at Hotbed Press, an open printmaking studio in Salford to take these studies into a new format.
What is lovely about mono is that it takes very little equipment to work within your own studio. I make these prints hunched over a small 1980s G-Plan glass coffee table inked up with oil paints. It's creaks under the strain but I'm sure it's put to better use than displaying nibbles at suburban dinner parties! Due to the very direct and spontaneous nature of the marks made in these works (if your hand rests on the paper aesthetic tragedies may occur) I may make 4 or 5 prints until I create one that feels 'right'.
