There are times as a monotype artists that I fight the wall, the blank page and the empty canvas. And like other artists, sometimes it all seems to be just beyond our fingertips. And then something catches our eye; a bit of news, a painting, something someone says or in my case, a video. I came across the video Lotus Flowers: Explore the Plexiglass Monoprint Techniques in CBP with Henry Li ( https://youtu.be/H0wL5pKLzOk ).
There was something about the ease of work in his Monotypes, the serenity and at the same time the decisive moves that created images, though fraught with accidental characteristics, still had a sense of structure and control. I had to try it. So I grabbed some paper that I found at a flea market. It’s 9 ½ x 11 buff linen resume paper with a deckle edge on two sides. It was heavy enough for the monotype process. So I set to work exploring ink washes. I used a spray bottle to add moisture to the area for the sky and watched it blur and run and incredible designs. Then I used an eyedropper to run a horizon line. What I created was a series of India ink wash landscape monotypes that I printed off of a glass sheet. Sometimes by using thin and thick layers of ink on the glass I was able to manipulate clouds and ground to create depth.
There were many happy accidents and some not so happy along the way. I've posted what I believe are successful artworks on Monoprint-Monotype.com and on my facebook page Monoprint-Monotype at http://bit.ly/2csaLIR Even the pressure I placed on the paper created differences in the resulting image. My next step will be to try acrylics in washes as well as printing inks. Though I think I’m going to stick with just the black.
