Time to Play 1 - Millennium Cross

Millennium Cross - watercolour
© Teresa Newham

Recently I decided to add to the palette of colours I use.  It's all too easy to get into a rut, and I was looking for a little inspiration - so I pored over the Winsor & Newton colour chart and ordered myself some new paints.  Then I made my own chart from the old and new colours and put it in my paintbox.

my personal colour chart!
© Teresa Newham

Keen to try some of the new shades out, I took as a starting point a photo taken at the Millennium Cross in Rosedale, North Yorkshire.  It was a favourite place of my mother's, and we'd made an emotional visit to it in August - I wanted to capture the atmosphere and how I felt when I was there.

the original scene
© Teresa Newham

Still in the spirit of experimentation, I'd also bought some 640gsm Arches watercolour paper.  I'd never used such a heavy weight of paper before - it didn't even need stretching, and certainly soaked up the initial washes. I  wet the sky with my new spray bottle to create some clouds, before layering on more vivid colours to depict the hillside.

getting the right colours down (eventually) . . .
© Teresa Newham

I immediately regretted my choice of  Perylene Maroon for the heather, but it didn't matter - this paper is so good that I simply wiped the offending colour away and replaced it with Quinacridone Magenta (the other colours I used were Sap Green and my beloved Raw Sienna and Cobalt Blue).

 wiping out a ghostly cross!
© Teresa Newham

This grade of Arches is popular with many artists because it will take a lot of punishment -  just as well, as I needed to remove some of the hillside in order to paint the cross itself.  The effect was quite ghoulish for a while!

the cross taking shape
© Teresa Newham

A little more work to the foreground, and I had the painting I wanted. This picture takes me straight back to Heygate Bank and that lonely cross on the moors.  I really enjoyed playing with the new paper: and as I have a few sheets left and some unopened tubes of paint to explore - watch this space!

the finished result
© Teresa Newham

Autumn Leaves

the colours of Autumn captured on paper!
© Teresa Newham

September has been chilly, and despite last week's sunshine it's clear that Autumn is upon us.  So I thought I'd better make some more leaf monoprints before the leaves I needed dropped off my Acer tree - as I'd sold all the prints & cards I'd made before!

the obliging Acer
© Teresa Newham

In the past I've fiddled about with templates for the background, but this time I simply applied the roller straight to the paper, making sure to keep it straight and even.  Then I layered the leaves on the top, using red, gold, silver and copper inks in different combinations depending on which colour lay behind them.

layering with metallic ink
© Teresa Newham

I love the shape of these leaves; they are a work of art in themselves, and sturdy enough not to break when the ink is applied.  The technique is completely different to my other printmaking - the ink is water-based and applied with a brush.

inking a leaf
© Teresa Newham

For the greetings cards I mixed some shades of base colour that I hadn't tried before, keen to see how the metallic inks would contrast - some shades simply don't work!

greetings cards with a single leaf print
© Teresa Newham

The biggest leaves made a wonderful design just as they were . . . but I couldn't resist doubling up some of the smaller ones, just to see what they looked like:

experimenting with double layers of leaves on some of the cards
© Teresa Newham

I used various sizes of leaf for the prints, and let the larger ones spill over onto the white paper. So the prints have turned out bigger than the ones I've made previously - luckily I've found some big mounts to show them off . . .

finding a suitable mount
© Teresa Newham

Each print and card is unique, because the leaves are positioned randomly.   I like to think that they evoke the spirit of Autumn and of my little Acer tree!