July 31, 2009 by Shawn Demarest
I grew up in Colorado, and spent most summers in the mountains. My grandmother drove out from New Jersey in the summer (she worked in education) to spend time with her daughters, and grandkids. She loved the mountains, and when the chance came along, she bought a log cabin with a great view. From then on, summers at the cabin became an annual thing for my little brother and me. It was really cool getting to know “Nana” and her aesthetic. Lavender, needlepoint, aqua-blue, happy-hour white wine, bridge, poofy hair, Life Cereal, waist-high slacks, and stories about her travels. Now her memories are growing faint – even her long-term memories are slipping away. Her cabin remains – and now I bring my kids there. But its not the same – and – is the same.
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Audubon Evening
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Low Grey Sun
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Cabin
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Goldilocks’ Cabin
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June 21, 2009 by Shawn Demarest
The next prints involved a number of processes – all ones I had hoped to learn more about. Spit bite, chine colle, and multiple plates were used to make these prints. I liked Crown Point’s registration process a lot – and the full-image chine colle was fantastic. By the end of the workshop I was feeling pretty confident about both. The last plate I worked on was a ‘back side’ plate (the accidentally bitten back of a worked plate). Just for fun, I masked images off with a sharpie, then used spit-bite to create the sky-like tone. Later, I printed it with gampi (chine colle) and the velvety texture of the aquatint really came out (and I also added a lace texture with soft-ground and a figure with dry-point
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June 21, 2009 by Shawn Demarest
I just arrived from San Francisco – after a 5-day workshop at Crown Point Press. Can’t say enough about the quality of the shop, and the knowledge of the printers. I’ll be bringing much of what I learned into my studio practice over the next few months. Here are a few of the prints that I worked on. My focus was on learning/trying various processes, rather than aiming to get a finished piece. The first series is based on my view through the Caltrain window on my way into San Francisco. I was able to print the photo at the hotel, and brought it with me the first day. I used a soap ground to create the dried water shapes in the foreground (or something similar). I aquatinted the plate first, which led to the soap spreading in a different way (jagged and more spread out) than if I had reversed the order (which is what is generally done). Later in the week, I experimented with various colors, and adding transparent base to the inks (applied a la poupe)
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May 20, 2009 by Shawn Demarest
Last spring I made a print called Edwards park. In it, an intriguing man (I later met, named Jaybird) was playing didgeridoo. In my print, he’s levitating, and a curved, back-and-forth line shows that. The power of that line stayed with me. And I got an idea for it a few weeks ago. If you know my work, you’ve seen plein air paintings, and imaginative/weird etchings. In both cases, either there are figures or landscapes. Well now, neither! However, if you’ve really looked at my work you’ve read words, and have seen gestural lines. So, here’s a toast to paths that take us to new places…
This adventure began with “The Beginning”. Then I continued with “states of mind” as my theme – working with the same small plates (about 4.5″x4.5″). I juxtapose them, brought in some color, and ended up trying some new (to me) techniques like multiple plate printing, soft-ground, and sugarlift. The plate with words was made with reverse metal type that I hammered into the plate letter by letter. Hope you enjoy.
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Edwards Park
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The Beginning (Levity)
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Floating Open
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States of Mind no2
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Floating Above Orange
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Adding Levity Blue
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April 26, 2009 by Shawn Demarest
Perhaps the final flower painting of the spring? Wondering why I continue to dive into full-blown, sweat-it-out paintings when perhaps I should be painting sweet sketches. So often the greatest beauty of a painting is found in its initial strokes. Anyway. It is what it is. My first try at painting tulips ended in a wreck – stripey tulips that while beautiful, opened their petals wide and spun around every day. I tried ice in the water (to no avail). Then, I tried some different ones that were much more placid, and seemed to want to be painted.
This is painted over “good karma day”. The third image shows a ghost image of that, and a ghost image of the first attempt at painting the uncooperative tulips (note: often being uncooperative is a very good thing). A very eery, ghost of a painting!
Struggled with this one more than most. Found it hard to stay loose. Worked in probably 4-hour shifts over the week. Interesting to paint so many reds – impossible to match the color of red in the sun. Will I head outside soon? Back to the print studio?……
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16″ x 20″ oil, Open-Close
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detail
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Early state, after wipeout – ghost image
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