High Tide Mark – an artistic blog
The high tide mark is one of nature’s cabinets of curiosities—a collection of objects, thrown up by the sea to create a line in the sand. As an artist I look at these lines in the sand as historical records. In collecting and documenting these curiosities of nature, I am able to generate themes, ideas and directions for my personal art practice, giving purpose to my own mark making.
Within its limited space, the cabinet of curiosities presents a microcosm, reproducing the general bigger picture, the macrocosm, on a reduced scale.
Musch, I. (ed.) 2001 Cabinet of Natural Curiosities, Tashchen, London.
This woodblock print shows how the effective application of the chin collé technique can enhance an artwork. The first image is of just the applied Japanese tissue paper; the second image has been overprinted with the woodblock. This technique has its origins in the sixth century and can be traced to both Korea and Egypt. Woodcut images on paper from China have been discovered dating from the ninth century. It was the introduction of manufactured paper that resulted in Europe embracing the woodcut printing method in the fourteenth century. Woodcuts use the side grain of the wood. The grain and coarseness of the surface requires much consideration, as this reproduces when printed and it can be particularly difficult to cut across the line of the grain. I have tried to exploit the aesthetic qualities of the coarse commercial plywood in my print. Woods with a finer grain allow the artist to cut more detailed designs. Woodcut knives, gouges and a scalpel are used to carefully remove the areas that I do not wish to print. Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863–1944), best known for his painting The Scream, was an accomplished woodblock printmaker. Munch hated to part with his paintings, so he used printmaking to reproduce many of his famous paintings.
Woodblock print with chin collé.
I now have a reason to introduce some colour to my printed image. The eggs start off as bright pink balls that turn purple or orange before they hatch.
My intention is to use chin collé to introduce colour beneath the black image, rather than prepare a second plate. Chine collé originates from France. Chine loosely translates as “tissue” or “thin paper” and collé is derived from the verb coller, meaning “to stick down”. It is the technique of printing an image on a very light, delicate paper that is adhered to the supporting paper. I will source suitable Japanese tissue papers that are both durable and retain their colour. To attach the tissue paper, I will use a very thin layer of Japanese rice paste, which is less likely to yellow with time.
The dark oval mark above the leafy sea dragon’s abdomen is proving to be a distraction. Further research has revealed the unusual reproductive fact that the male leafy sea dragon carries and cares for the eggs. The female simply lays several hundred bright pink eggs on the brood patch on the male sea dragon’s tail. The brood patch consists of cups, into which a single egg is placed. These cups supply oxygen to the eggs for the four to six weeks they take to hatch. Once these eggs hatch the male sea dragon is relieved of his parental duties, as the hatchlings are immediately able to fend for themselves.
To give shape and form to my etching of the leafy sea dragon, I applied an aquatint. Stop-out was hand painted onto the copper plate to protect the areas that did not require further tone. Using an air gun, a very fine layer of hardground emulsion was applied to the exposed surface. The emulsion provides a textured surface; the exposed areas are then bitten away when put in a ferric chloride bath. Two shades of aquatint have been applied. By covering the lighter shade with stop-out, and putting the plate back in the ferric chloride to create a deeper bite that holds more ink, a darker aquatint can be achieved.
Second state
Third state
I will now print a short edition, of five prints, of the third state. Then, the plan is to experiment with a jeweller’s drill and apply more marks to build detail, giving the leafy sea dragon more three-dimensional form.
Etching is the technique of using acid to incise a line into metal. This technique was employed in medieval society by armourers to overcome the difficulties of engraving decoration into iron with a burin. They would coat the amour with a substance like wax to resit the acid. The decoration would be drawn through this surface, to create the design, and then the acid would be applied. Artist Albert Dürer (1471–1528) trained as a goldsmith. He adopted this technique as it allowed him to apply intricate shape, shadow and tone to his images. The technique took off in the seventeenth century due to developments in chemistry and the introduction of copper plates.
I covered my copper plate with a stop-out liquid ground, which is an asphalt-based liquid. The stop-out provides an acid-resistant surface to the copper. I then scratched my image of the leafy sea dragon directly onto the surface, removing areas of the stop-out. The plate was then placed in a bath of ferric chloride. The image exposed to the ferric chloride is eaten away, leaving a shallow depression in the copper plate. When ink is applied, it clings to the edges of the bitten area.
First state.
The copper plate I chose came with marks and scratches, which, rather than remove, I chose to enhance. Leaving these marks added another dimension to the image and my intention was to use these marks to evoke the fluidity of a body of water—the movement of currents, and the small crustaceans, such as plankton and mysids, which make up the primary food source for leafy sea dragons.
Leafy sea dragon
Date: 3rd of July, 2011.
Location: Point Londsale (back beach), Victoria, Australia.
My little dragon
The leafy sea dragon or Glauerts Seadragon, Phycodurus eques, is a marine fish in the family Syngnathide, which also includes seahorses. Its name is derived from the long leaf-like protrusions that extend from its body. These protrusions mimic seaweed and serve as camouflage for the fish.
This specimen of seaweed shows how effective the leafy sea dragon’s protrusions are as camouflage. It was collected from the front beach at Point Lonsdale and has been pressed and dried. It has also served as a stencil for some of my monoprints. A monoprint is printed from a singular image prepared on a sheet of perspex.
Collection: Glass
Date: 3rd of July, 2011.
Location: Point Londsale (back beach), Victoria, Australia.
Smooth wedges of coloured glass. These might make a wonderful window for our bathroom at home.
Collection: Plastic
Date: 2nd of July, 2011.
Location: Point Londsale (back beach), Victoria, Australia.
Most unusual: A green, plastic soldier and a model of King Kong with arms removed.
Lots of plastic washed up after the high tides last night. Many of the coloured surfaces have taken on a lovely chalky appearance from the corrosive salt water.
This colourful collection of found objects will no doubt provide a point of reference for an art project in the future. Laying out these shapes immediately reminded me of the exquisite box constructions of artist Joseph Cornell, and the poetic way he arranged his found objects.
Artist Sally Cleary exhibited at the RMIT Project Space/Spare Room gallery space in July and August. As a practitioner of assemblage artwork, her surroundings in the Otway Ranges—and both the natural and man-made objects she finds there—directly influence her creations. Exquisite juxtaposition of these ephemeral objects suggests the fragility of life and the environment. Her arrangements, although complex, appear effortless.
The room brochure for the exhibition makes reference to the notion of the Wunderkrammer (also known as the Kunstkammer)—the wonder room. In 1587, Gabriel Kaltemarckt advised Christian I of Saxony that three types of items were indispensable in forming a Kunstkammer or art collection: firstly sculptures and paintings; secondly, curious items from home and abroad; and thirdly, antlers, horns, claws, feathers and other things belonging to strange and curious animals. Sally Cleary ’s collections and photographic documentation appear to fulfil these three principles. In my opinion, I think there is something much more natural in the construction of her beautiful artworks and I would refer to Sally as the “bowerbird” of assemblage. Her elaborate bowers have definitely captured my attention and imagination.
And lots of rope in so many different colours. Why is it that all these pieces of rope are so short? Who is responsible for cutting them all up?
