Geez, Louise!

Week two of Louise’s project continued with the same monotype momentum as the first, with some solar plate and copper plate edition prints added to the mix. Louise conjured up a total of 185 monotypes: individual monotypes for sale are entitled Homage to the Mountains, and range in size from a tiny 5” x 3 5/8” to 27 3/4” x 20 1/4” and cost from $500 to $2500. There are six jewel-like monotype sets ( 9” x 13”)  titled Tout Suite Set  available in a handmade portfolio folders priced at $3600. She also created a series of 5 black and white aquatint etchings, titled Tout Suite, all 12” x 16” or 16” 12”, that will be sold individually for $500 and $2200 for the set. Lastly, Louise painted three larger edition carborundum aquatints, also titled Tout Suite sized at 18” x 24” and $1800 each, and one color carborundum aquatint edition print (18” x 24”) at $2000.

Picture

Louise back in our “artist corner,” hard at work with all of her pastels, watercolors, pieces of cardboard, and anything else she can find (including some Q-Tips!) to make her richly colorful and deeply beautiful prints.

Picture

Louise is lining up little pieces of cardboard she painted on the press to make a print for the Tout Suite Set series.

Picture

The summer sun setting on a pile of Louise’s already printed materials–sitting under the press waiting to see if we can use them as layerable ghost prints.

Picture

Chopping piles of Tout Suite Sets.

Picture

The early morning job–come in and start taking the prints off the wall from the day before! They are completely dry and flattened from being stapled to the wall overnight.

Picture

Julia, Ashley and Paige pluckin’ out those staples.

Picture

Sue demonstrating how to aquatint, degrease copper plates, and steel face them in the tank. Always gotta wear protection!

Picture

Our first spit-bite at OG! Louise is using nitric acid on a brush dipped in water and painting directly on the aquatinted copper plate. Spit bites enable the artist to get a range of tone on the plate in a painterly manner.

Picture

The pretty blue color that indicate the nitric is etching away.

Picture

Sue is making sure the acid was etching deeply enough using her magnifying loop.

Picture

Much of the final two or three days of the project for Ashley, Paige and Julia was helping Louise organizing all the monotypes into groups for her suites and putting them together according to size for ease during the signing.

Picture

Louise and Sammy puttin’ up their feet.

Picture

Proud and wiped after the full day signing. (We even continued printing that morning..!)
It was very inspiring to work with Louise and observe her working style–nonstop, and without hesitation. Art just flows from her brain and fingertips. Her work will be on our website shortly; please take a look at her entire collection made at OG this June. Also, call or email the shop for more info on any of the pieces!

It has been such a busy but wonderful summer, and we can’t believe we have only a few more projects for 2011. Look for Katherine Bowling and her photographer husband, Paul Mutimear, coming mid July, and then our final project with Farrell Brickhouse in August!