Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Oh my gosh. I haven't posted anything since 2015! That's kinda funny/sad/whatever. At the top of 2016 I had a health scare that took up a lot of time and energy, and unfortunately it had me sidelined until mid-2017. But I'm back now, and with a vengeance! My studio mate moved out in February and at first I was freaked out about paying rent all by my lonesome, but I AM LOVING THIS! Carolyn and I didn't cross paths much at the studio, but I love, love, love not having to clean up after myself upon departure, and there is just something very cool about knowing it's all mine.

I worked on some pieces in the fall of 2017--a Kepler box and a Marie Curie painting on panel, shown here.




OH! And another painting that I just love. This is was about our family vacation we took a few years ago to 8 National Parks. The painting is about our trip, really, but the trees are from Glacier. I have some hidden words in the back of the painting, which I covered up since it was personal stuff. I really enjoyed working on it and would love to show you some process pics, but they only seem to exist in my mind. I can't find them! You'll have to trust me on this. 


I have a new painting that's kinda fun--inspired by my family's spring break camping trip to Big Bend. I def have process pics for that and want to show them to you.

Step 1: Get an idea!
It started with the cartoon drawing. I was knitting on the long drive home and this idea just popped into my head so I jotted it down. I knew I'd lose it otherwise.


Step 2+3: Gesso some paper and start working on the background.
I started with a huge piece of printmaking paper--36"x48"--and slathered on a layer of gesso. After it dried I added a wash of phthalo blue. It's a boring pic, I know, but it's the starting point. (Step 3 coming, I promise it won't take 3 years.)


2 comments:

Aine Scannell said...


Hey there Cathy.

Always lovely to hear from you - I was afraid that you had given up blogging. And you know what I just love reading other artists blogs and if they are also printmakers then that's even better.

I have also been not very impressive at keeping up with my blog. Sorry to hear that you had a health scare, that must have taken a huge amount of emotional energy out of you and probably your whole family too. I do hope that it is all behind you by now.

That Marie Curie painting is very striking I like that look she has on her face - it's a sense of self assurance. I hope you will be getting back into some printmaking although if its painting for the time being then 'needs must', as they say.

I have spent the past few days digital scanning a tiny miniature artists book that I originally made a few years back. A friend of mine who dropped by last Friday told me she's organising a little exhibition this coming weekend and said she'd like to have a batch of my lilbooks there, for sale.

As luck would have it I could'nt find the original file of this lilbook so I have had to do scans of it. section by section .................. Ridiculous but I couldn't stand any further searching through memory sticks and ~DVDs etc.

Today I'm putting the sections together to test that its ok size-wise.................hopefully later on this afternoon I can print them out and then small tiny amount of glue and then post them to her tomorrow morning.
After that I can finally get back to doing some printmaking.
Keep up the good work and it is truly lovely to hear from you again.

Aine xx

Cathy Savage said...

Hi Aine,

Thanks for your continued support! I bought some material you told me about eons ago--it was like vellum and you use it for monotypes. Have you been playing around with them? Would love to hear about any attempts.

Sadly, the shop where I was printing is no longer open. There are 2 others in town so I'm not completely without a press, but I'm taking a break from printing at the moment--or at least using a large press. I have a sign press in my studio that's good for smaller relief and possible monotypes.

Sending you a personal email shortly!
Cathy