Michael: Ashdown Forest - High horizon

A hard climb to the high horizon.



Acrylic on canvas, 25 x 25 cm.

Michael: More solarplate etching

After I saw how much detail the solarplate etching technique picked up from photographs, I wanted to find out whether it work as well with my drawings.

I chose two drawings out of my sketchbook from Tibet, created a transparency, and then etched it onto the photopolymer plate.



Lhasa. Solarplate etching, A4. Click for bigger version.

Again, the plate has picked up every detail of the original image. The top drawing, of Barkhor Square, was drawn in pen and ink; the bottom one, of the Jokhang temple, was in pen and ink, with watercolour washes. All the lines and tones are there.

I then printed the plate again in dark blue and red.



Lhasa. Solarplate etching, A4, second version. Click for bigger version.

Michael: Late summer rain

Late summer rain threatens to spoil the afternoon.



Acrylic on canvas, 25 x 25 cm.

Exhibition panoramas

Panoramas of the London Road Group exhibition at the Ashdown Forest Visitor Centre. Click the pictures for a bigger version.





More information about the exhibition: londonroadgroup.blogspot.com/p/exhibition.html.

Michael: Solarplate etching - Paseo del Prado, Havana

Because I had nothing better to do last week, I went on a course at the Ink Spot Press in Brighton to learn solarplate (photopolymer) etching.

Unlike tradition etching, photopolymer etching uses no acid, no wax, and no sticky smelly stopout varnish; produces no fumes and no dust; and doesn't turn your hands yellow. In short, it's safe.

The plate is etched by projecting ultraviolet light through a transparency of your design onto a polymer-coated aluminium plate. The light hardens the exposed polymer; you wash the plate in water, removing the soft parts, and revealing the etched lines. You then print the plate in exactly the same way as a traditionally etched plate.

Photopolymer etching seems to be promoted primarily as a means of creating etchings from photos, so my first plate was based on one of my photos.



House on the Paseo del Prado, Havana.
Solarplate etching on paper, approx A4.

I chose this photo because I wanted to see how much detail the etching method would pickup. Compare it with the original photo:



Almost every detail!

Then I printed the plate in different colours.







This last one shows one of the problems with solarplate etching: if you cut the plate to size by using a Stanley knife, the polymer coating can split from the plate at the corner, leaving a gap into which ink creeps, and then spills out when you print.

More pictures later.

Michael: Drawing at Nymans

At last, a change from painting Ashdown Forest. A warm sunny day spent at Nymans Gardens in West Sussex. First, I drew the ruins of the house, and then crossed over to the wild garden.





Pen and ink on paper, each approx A5.

Michael: Ashdown Forest — Last of the sun

The last of the sun going down over the hills catches the edge of the bracken.



Last of the sun. Acrylic on canvas, 25 x 25 cm.