I’m following the monotype workshop timetable that I would have been working in Florence this year. I have made four more prints in this second stage, building on the ideas that developed in the first group of prints.
This print has a group of prehistoric goddesses from a carved drawing in Les Combarelles cave in France, set into a shape as a relief print and used here as a chine colle (this is like a collage, but embedded in the ink layers of the print). A small Snake Goddess, a relief print of another prehistoric image, is ‘visiting’ them. The setting is a monotype top and bottom, with the large circular etching plate of hydrangea flowers printed as intaglio.
There was enough ink left on the etching plate to print the ghost here, where I have added a chine colle (again a relief print) of three dancing women from Mycenae, this time with the larger Snake Goddess who is also an image from Mycenae, a chine colle from a woodcut.
I used another of my earlier plates for this print, the large woodcut of a hydrangea, printed on a fine Chinese paper to use as a chine colle. The two Snake Goddess figures are also each chine colle from relief print.
I was surprised to find that there were still traces of ink on the etching plate, so I printed yet another ghost from it and strengthened the top and bottom monotype setting. I added a chine colle from a life drawing, putting her in a lovely warm glow.
It’s unlikely that I would have made these prints if I had been in Florence and not in my own studio, because I would not have had any of my old etching or woodcut plates with me, only the prints that I had thought I might use in chine colle. It’s interesting how much the studio offers opportunities to influence my art choices.
