Kathryn Orton standing by her Relief Collagraphs and Collage: Town Planning.
Judy Bourke displaying her Artist Book, Hand Cut, Collagraph.
Pauline Denney standing by her works: Earth Goddess (Heidi) and Sitting. Collagraph on wood and Solar Plate Etching respectively.
Ink Paper Press, the latest exhibition at Studio 19 officially opened last night with the artists and art enthusiasts present.
The exhibition is dedicated to printmaking with the works of eight different printmaking artists: Judy Bourke, Kathryn Orton, Phillip Constantine, Samantha Waldon, Pauline Denney, Caroline Oakley, Garry Jones and Alannah Dreise.
The exhibition is balanced out by the various different mediums of printmaking. Judy Bourke’s hand cut, Collagraph artist book is to be handled with gloves and her Photopolymer Etching/Collagraph fridge magnets provides arts enthusiasts with a gallery at home. Bourke says that she likes to make practical things and making the fridge magnets allows for pieces that might not be working to still be used and on display.
“I always thought that everyone has a gallery at home and it’s the fridge–you have your children’s work, grandchildren’s work, there are notes on there, messages from people. There are common things on everyone’s fridges that you move around and I think that’s our domestic gallery. I’ve made fridge magnets so people can have an upmarket domestic gallery on their fridge.” Bourke said.
“I’ve been making fridge magnets for a long time because I have some artworks as a whole that look like crap and I often find ways of cutting up one work and find sections or parts of them and rearrange them and they seem to work better. It’s like destroying something that you didn’t value and re-creating it so people can value it.”
This worked for Bourke last night as she sold one magnet to an art enthusiast shortly after arriving at the opening.
Kathryn Orton’s Relief Collagraph and Collages, Town Planning, focuses on houses in Coniston and Hill End. Orton says that the inspiration behind the works was the destruction of old buildings that she was fond of.
“I started noticing the buildings that I liked best were being knocked down and replaced with more modern architecture. I like a lot of old things, not just houses. I particularly like the style of the older houses around Wollongong. It (the work) started with me trying to make a record of these things before they all disappeared.”
Orton explains that her works are all Collagraphs made with mat boards used for framing and states this is the simplest way of making the plate.
“All the prints here are Collagraphs made with mat boards which are used in framing. This is the simplest method to making the plate: I cut into the surface layer of the mat board, peel it off and shellac those to ink and clean them and re-use them. These ones are all printed as Relief prints, so it’s ink rolled across the top and then run through an etching press.”
Pauline Denney’s Sitting, a two-plate Solar Plate Etching involves a different technique, focusing more on light coming through the plate rather than using acid.
“With solar plates, the drawings are on film and are squashed between the solar plate and the board and exposed to sunlight. It’s a lovely finish as the glass lets sunlight go through it. Although some artists prefer using lamps on solar plates as it is more controlled lighting. You need to expose the plates on hot, sunny, clear days as the lighting goes in and out when it’s cloudy.”
Other printmaking mediums at Ink Paper Press include: Monotypes, Collagraph prints, Woodcut, Two and Three Plate Etchings and Mezzotints.
Ink Paper Press is on show until April 27.
Images taken by Rachel Loveday.
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