I started experimenting with this idea during lockdown - a combo of my printed work overlaid with mixed media.
To be honest I haven't had much / any experience with ink or water colours so I made some pretty ugly mistakes while playing around. It was fun though and nice to have immediate results - when using oils it can several layers in before you get a sense that things are working.
Below Left is a print overplayed with ink, graphite and pen. Directly below are some tests. There isn't any room for mistakes when using this method which is also a bit new to me. With oils, as frustrating as it is, if you make a mistake you can sometimes rub it off carefully or paint over it once dried. When working with ink or any wet medium like this it dries so quickly that you get what you get.
Below is another test but using colour. I recently went to 'The Secret Garden' movie and although it didn't quite meet my expectations I did enjoy the beauty of the garden and the run down manor. I wanted to try and bring these themes into a print.
I have lots of treasures in my studio that are reminiscent of these aesthetics - even an old pop up house.
So I surrounded my work space in all that I could find that would feed my imagination and started painting - books, fabric, trinkets, buttons, dried leaves and fresh flowers. I also listen to audio books and I try to match the story with the work so here I listened to a Kate Morton novel called 'The Forgotten Garden'.
Below you can see a work in progress of a piece that I will include in my upcoming show this November. I have taken the time to consider each part of this drawing as it tells a story of my childhood around the time that I was a Bear.
