MARTHA KELLY ART
  • HOME
  • PRINTS
  • WATERCOLORS
    • Memphis
    • Paris
    • England
    • France
    • Greece and Turkey
    • St. Louis
    • House Portraits and Commissions
    • My Palette
  • OILS
  • BOOKS
  • SKETCHES
    • Quarantine Journal
    • Memphis
    • Overton Park
    • Mr. Darcy
    • Mr. Darcy's Odyssey
    • Musicians
    • Tea
    • Dutch travelogue
    • Shakertown travelogue
    • Sketching tools
  • LITURGICAL
    • Special Bulletin Sets
    • Year A
    • Year B
    • Year C
    • "The Garden"
  • BLOG
  • ABOUT
  • SHOP

Press eye candy

10/6/2021

0 Comments

 
I'm printing a lot lately, and I got this short video of my new(ish) press yesterday. For years my bed size was limited to 12x20". This is more like 30x40". I'm not sure offhand as I write this, but it can easily take the 18x24" blocks, even longways across, that I've been working on. I could get rolls of lino that are larger, but that's as big a sheet as I can get, and it's just right. Big enough to be eye catching and let me do a lot more detail, but not so big that it's ergonomically challenging to carve. I'm so enjoying expanding my horizons for my show at Walter Anderson Museum of Art. I always try to seriously up my game for a museum show, and this press, which I found second hand just before the world shut down last year, has seriously allowed me to do that.
0 Comments

More printing

10/2/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
This is one of my favorite pieces for the show, and I’m getting final prints of it this week. After struggling with several other recent ones, I was worried about the extreme intricacy of this one for printing, but it acted like a champ. I’m grateful. I think the base later of some solid color gives a stickier surface to work into. The really delicately carved block is the second one, and my current theory is that it sticks to the ink better than to bare paper. The ones that have had me tearing my hair out lately are smaller but similarly intricate and just black and white. So all that detail is going straight onto the bare paper. I think of multi colored prints as more work, and overall they are, but they may also be less headache in an unexpected way. Whatever it is, it was a good way to end the week, and I’m grateful. My deadline is close enough that I’ll work some over the weekend as well, but I’m giving myself a slower Saturday start, drinking tea, reading the paper, and a trip to the farmers market for the necessary Cherokee purple tomatoes. Happy weekend, y’all!
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Printing

9/27/2021

0 Comments

 
It’s been quiet around here because I’ve been working to get good prints for my show at WAMA next year. The first batch of publicity images are due soon, so I’ve been printing a stack of blocks that I had carved, working to get crisp prints. That’s harder than I had hoped because I’ve really challenged myself to do some intricate and interesting blocks, and I’m also working larger (with my new press from last year) than I ever have. All of those factors make it trickier to keep the paper adhered really well to the block. It it moves at all, the image is blurred. Fortunately the Cardinals have been on a historically unprecedented run of good baseball, including several day games to keep me company while I work. It’s always good to have something happy to listen to. I also found a website where the Harry Potter books read by Stephen Fry (the English versions, and I adore Stephen Fry) are streamable.

I also found out that the dates for my show had changed, so I had to rework the exhibition print. I cut out the whole section with the old dates, carved new ones, and managed to plug them in, with a little mailing tape to hold it all together. That was a first for me, and it was nice to have it work. Here are a few sneak peeks into the process. I’ll be able to get really good scans of the finished prints once they dry.
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Exhibition print

9/7/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
It’s been fun printing this week. I’m playing with colors for my exhibition print. I did one for Dixon too. When life hands you the chance to put your name and a museum’s name in the same place for a period of time, it feels worth making art about. So this week I’m printing a rainbow of options to see what I like best. What I really like best is a Warhol-like mass of them. That feels deeply celebratory to me. And such a thing may live eventually up my stairwell. But for now I’m seeing if I can get one that I’ll really like to use to promote the show. It’s a fun process.

I’m also continuing to do one or two good printing sessions a day but continue to take more time for myself than I have in years past. Yesterday was a perfect day weather-wise — low 80’s with a breeze. I took a long lunch on the screened in porch and finished my book before going back in for a second printing session. Then I took dinner out there too. It’s been good to carve out small scale daily happiness for myself in the midst of larger craziness in the world.
Picture
0 Comments

Gearing up to print

9/5/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
I’ve done a lot of carving over the last year, and I’ve done some printing too, but I haven’t at all kept up with the volume of blocks. So now is the time. I’m settling into printing at least the first batch of each edition for the WAMA show next year. Nicely I still have some months, so I can do it in stages and keep going on some more creative work as well. Friday, after my Thursday sabbath (see my last post), I printed the first 10 of this Skagit river print. It’s really detailed and delicate, and my regular, somewhat heavy paper was moving too much on the block as the press went across it, so I was getting blurry prints. I ended up choosing a lighter paper that will stick better to the wet ink and not smudge. I got 10 of 30, and that was plenty of work by the time I had puzzled through the earlier issues. Now I know, though, and the next batch will go faster.

Then yesterday I cut a blank block the same size as my show poster, a carved poster print to celebrate the fact of a museum show. I did one for Dixon and am now doing one for Walter Anderson. When you get to put your name and a museum name together, it’s worth doing a print to celebrate. As I did with Dixon, I’m doing a bunch of different color tests. It’s fun to have some rainbow options. So yesterday I cut the background block, figured out the paper size, cut a stack of paper, and then made a diagram to keep the block carefully centered on the paper so I can layer two blocks and not have them weirdly offset. Then I stopped and played with my new dog a while. Today I did a whole series of different colored backgrounds (each one requiring multiple color mixing and blending the colors on the block itself with rollers). They’ll dry for a day or two, and then I’ll print the intricate block with all the lettering on top.

I’m finding myself still in slow motion as I try to get back into my work groove. I think it’s been hard for everyone to stay sharp and focused through this whole pandemic period. So I’m giving myself some grace, taking more time off than usual, but getting one good printing session done each work day. I’ve got time, and that feels like a manageable approach for now, and I’m grateful to be able to do this.

Last year felt very slow as well, but I ended up with a stack of museum prints and also a book I wasn’t expecting to do, so sometimes I’m doing better than I think I am on the productivity front. Anyway, for now printing, plus dog time and some pleasure reading breaks plus extra trips to Dixon during the Thiebaud show (which feeds my work in a roundabout way). Solidarity to everyone doing a little slogging at this point in the world. And gratitude to everyone managing to make a little beauty along the way.
Picture
0 Comments

Dog and distraction

8/30/2021

0 Comments

 
It’s been quiet around here as I made my way home across the country (2600 miles solo in the camper van), tried to wade through three and a half months’ worth of mail and necessaries, and FOUND A NEW DOG. This is Gideon. He’s an 8 month old Golden retriever , 62 pounds (so far — I’m hoping for a decent bit bigger), and one congenital heart condition discouraging folks from adopting him. He’s a sunny, sweet, attentive, smart love, though, and we’ll see what the vets say. We’re going to have us a good time for whatever time we get, though. That unscarred, love-the-world disposition can be hard to find in rescue dogs, who have tended to live through some tough stuff, and I just couldn’t leave him in a kennel. I still miss Mr. Darcy, but Gideon is going to be a quality companion too.

He started work yesterday as my studio dog and did great. He laid around in the floor and kept me company while I printed. I found out how out of practice I am though! I printed 40 small Walter Andersons, from a block I carved over the summer, but I completely forgot to reverse the direction on the color roll. I was watching the prints closely for crispness, but I totally didn’t notice that the colors were backwards from what I wanted. Now I’m not sure what to do with this batch. But at least I got my printmaking area cleaned up and going again. I’ll get locked in here soon I’m sure. You can see the proof in the top left, with the color the way I want it, and the others that just don’t match. (Feels like a Sesame Street exercise, doesn’t it?) Sigh.
Picture
0 Comments

Exhibition print

6/4/2021

0 Comments

 


​I finally got a proof done of this after a lot of letter carving, which goes slowly. I’ll definitely be refining it more, but it’s always fun to see the first proof after a one time of planning. I cut away a bit more than I wish I had on the tree, but that’s par for the course on printmaking. I’m going to downsize the birds some as well. Overall I’m please with the feel of it, and when I get it where I want it, it will be in color, but black is easy for proofing. I’ll do a solid light colored background and darker colors for this block on top. I’ll likely try several different color options before picking my favorite. That’s the number one advantage of doing more than one block instead of printing light and then cutting away more as you go. It’s easier to keep more intricate prints lined up that way, and it’s a bit less work, but you can’t go back and try a different color or adjust a previous layer since it’s all cut away already. I’ve done a couple of reduction prints but mostly prefer to do multiple blocks for the flexibility.
Picture
0 Comments

Printing day

4/14/2021

0 Comments

 
I’ve got a stack of blocks for various prints carved, but not as many finished prints. I don’t print an entire edition at once, unless it’s an easy one on my treadle press, but I want to get a stack of each of the new ones ready as I go along instead of having to do it all this fall ahead of the WAMA exhibit.

Today was fiddly printing. I’d put down the simple blue backgrounds yesterday, but today’s was three colors and four rollers. First I rolled the trees in black with a small roller. Then I wiped underneath them with a paper towel to keep the water from being too dark. Then I’d add gray in the water. Then pink in the clouds and a bit more loosely in the water. Finally I’d do the upper clouds in gray with a larger roller. I love the effect of rolling multiple colors (the technical term is a rainbow roll, which is way better than lots of technical terms out there), but it takes patience and time. I only got seven of this one done today, and this one is time consuming enough I’ll probably keep it at a smaller edition than most of my prints. I’m really pleased with how it came out though, and I’m happy to have a couple of local to Ocean Springs scenes ready for my show there. Memphis is home, and the Old Forest is my Horn Island, but it’s also nice to nod to Anderson’s landscape in a show at his museum.
Picture
Picture
Picture
I keep a book of my prints with notes on each print, how many I’ve editioned already, and color samples for when I print the next batch. It really helps me to have all that information in one place. I’m not a super organized person, but the print book is key.
0 Comments

Color test

4/13/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
I’ve been mostly working on commissions this week, but I’ve been carving a little and pulling an occasional proof of this one as I go along. This morning I used one of the proofs to watercolor on so I could see if I want to do a second block with a blue background. I like them both ways and am leaning toward doing sets of prints each way at the moment, but I’ll look at them a few more days before knowing for sure.
0 Comments

Mr. Darcy print

4/5/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
I've been working on a new print of Mr. Darcy this week from one of the farm photos I took. I've done a painting and several sketches of him in water before, and the subject continues to draw me. This one needs a little thinning and refining since it is the very first proof I've pulled, but I'm happy with where it's going.

I've also been playing around with watercolor, working on images from our farm trips this spring. I've been thinking of the series in my head as "Daffodil Season" and wondering about a graphic essay. I'm so grateful to have art as a way to work through grief and also memorialize times that are dear to me. Here is the watercolor version of that same scene.
Picture
0 Comments
<<Previous
Forward>>
    Picture

       online store


    Martha Kelly is an artist and illustrator who lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee.


    Get studio email updates from Gideon and me.
    Submit

    To subscribe to this blog, by email:

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner



    Categories

    All
    Artist In Residence
    Art Workshops
    Calendar
    Chalk Line Books
    Commissions
    Country Workshops
    Daily News
    Dixon
    Exhibition
    Food Sketches
    Fountain Pen
    Fountain-pen
    Gouache
    Graphic Essay
    Graphite
    Illustration
    Letterpress
    Liturgical
    Markers
    Memphis Theological Seminary
    Memphis Urban Sketchers
    Museum Sketching
    Musicians
    Oils
    Open House
    Overton Park
    Paris
    Pastels
    Pen And Wash
    Pink Palace Crafts Fair
    PNW
    Prints
    Publications
    Radio
    Self Portrait
    Still Life
    Tea
    Television
    Travel
    Trees
    Urban Sketching
    Video
    WAMA
    Watercolor
    Wedding



    Archives

    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    November 2010
    October 2010
    June 2010
    April 2010
    January 2010

  • HOME
  • PRINTS
  • WATERCOLORS
    • Memphis
    • Paris
    • England
    • France
    • Greece and Turkey
    • St. Louis
    • House Portraits and Commissions
    • My Palette
  • OILS
  • BOOKS
  • SKETCHES
    • Quarantine Journal
    • Memphis
    • Overton Park
    • Mr. Darcy
    • Mr. Darcy's Odyssey
    • Musicians
    • Tea
    • Dutch travelogue
    • Shakertown travelogue
    • Sketching tools
  • LITURGICAL
    • Special Bulletin Sets
    • Year A
    • Year B
    • Year C
    • "The Garden"
  • BLOG
  • ABOUT
  • SHOP