Saturday, March 26, 2022

The ‘Vine Glow’ Series
Digitally Designed Fine-Art Prints on Paper

Marie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below other posts featuring my prints on paper that has featured on this blogspot:
Made to Order
Unique State (Partners in Print)
Veiled Curtains
A Letter to a Friend
Beyond the Fear of Freedom
Travelling Solander Project
Star Series
Imprint
Cry for the Wilderness
Federation on Hold – Call Waiting
Wish You Were Where?
The Four Seasons
The Creation of Hurricane Katrina – The Disruptor
The Creation of ‘Whose Place? My Place, Your Space’
The ‘Vine Glow’ Series
Vine Glow - Series 2
Vine Glow - Series 3
‘Whose Church?’
‘A Journey Ends . . . Another Nightmare Begins’


Introduction
The interaction between man and the environment is of growing concern as the human population is accelerating towards 9 billion.

Our existential need for food, clothing, shelter, minerals and energy has placed enormous pressure on the biosphere via de-forestation and de-habitation on a grand scale, thereby destroying the natural carbon sinks (such as flora) and at the same time, creating greenhouse gas sources, causing an unprecedented anthropogenic change of the Earth’s atmosphere. The philosophy underlying my ‘Environmental Art’ strives to prick the viewer’s consciousness to garner support for sustainability.

The works on paper in this blog post, ‘Vine Glow’, rest on the premise that native plant species are fragile in the modern world and are a threatened biological resource.


Background to the Creation of the Digitally Designed Printed Series – ‘Vine Glow’
I have been designing and creating imagery for my hand printed works on paper using a range of traditional, improvisational and signature printing techniques for more than three decades now. Examples of these techniques include collographs, etchings, stamping, stencilling, mono printing, traditional screen printing, improvisational screen printing and my own signature screen printing techniques which I have termed, matrix formatting, multiplexing and low relief screen printing. In addition to these techniques, I have been experimenting with hand printing techniques using disperse dyes on synthetic/polyester fabrics for more than two decades. These experiments have led to one of my signature techniques that I have developed and termed - 'MultiSperse Dye Sublimation (MSDS).' The MSDS technique employs disperse dyes and involves hand printing multiple resists and multiple overprinted layers employing numerous color plates and low relief plant materials. The completed works are rich in color, light, shade, contrast, movement and depth. The multiple layers also imbue a painterly aesthetic and textural, three-dimensional quality to the finished ArtCloth works. Each print is unique and cannot be replicated.

As a professional senior graphic designer/illustrator in a previous career, I have always had an interest in creating imagery, prints, illustrations, posters and publications using digital processes. This interest has led me to some fascinating explorations in the field of digitally created works on paper and textiles. This post focuses on my new digitally designed prints on paper series - ‘Vine Glow’.


‘Vine Glow’ - A New Series/Edition of Digitally Designed Prints on Paper
The ‘Vine Glow’ series/edition of digitally designed prints on paper have been based on one of my personal and unique prints on cloth which employs my signature MSDS technique. The imagery was scanned and digitally reworked in Photoshop to create a superb complimentary colorways suite. The colors have been sensitively and painstakingly created to encompass the mysterious, deeply rich, abstract vine shapes with vivid hues.

These deconstructed, contemporary, botanically influenced images have been intentionally designed to give the illusion of an aesthetic ‘glow’ and portray another world view of our beautiful fragile flora in sumptuous, rich colour ! Additional digital techniques have been employed to create imagery that contains depth and a luminous quality to the printed works.

There are four sets of prints in the ‘Vine Glow’ series namely:
‘Vine Glow I’;
‘Vine Glow II’;
‘Vine Glow III’;
‘Vine Glow IV’.

Each set consists of a limited edition of three signed prints throughout the series, eg. 1/3, 2/3, 3/3. Each printed image is 15.7 cm wide x 15.7 cm high and is printed on archival white inkjet paper stock measuring 21 cm wide x 30 cm high (A4 size).

Please email me at - - Marie-Therese - for more information or if you are interested in purchasing any of the prints for yourself or a friend!

Hope you enjoy the prints!


The ‘Vine Glow’ Series

Vine Glow I
Title: Vine Glow I.
Technique: Digitally designed print.
Image size: 15.7 cm w x 15.7 cm h.
Paper stock and size: Archival white inkjet paper stock measuring 21 cms wide x 30 cms high (A4 size).
Edition: 1/3, 2/3, 3/3.

Vine Glow II
Title: Vine Glow II.
Technique: Digitally designed print.
Image size: 15.7 cm w x 15.7 cm h.
Paper stock and size: Archival white inkjet paper stock measuring 21 cms wide x 30 cms high (A4 size).
Edition: 1/3, 2/3, 3/3.

Vine Glow III
Title: Vine Glow III.
Technique: Digitally designed print.
Image size: 15.7 cm w x 15.7 cm h.
Paper stock and size: Archival white inkjet paper stock measuring 21 cms wide x 30 cms high (A4 size).
Edition: 1/3, 2/3, 3/3.



Vine Glow IV
Title: Vine Glow IV.
Technique: Digitally designed print.
Image size: 15.7 cm w x 15.7 cm h.
Paper stock and size: Archival white inkjet paper stock measuring 21 cms wide x 30 cms high (A4 size).
Edition: 1/3, 2/3, 3/3.

Saturday, March 19, 2022

Arte Latino Paintings - Part I [1]
Art Essay

Marie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below all posts in this series:
Arte Latino Textiles
Arte Latino Prints
Arte Latino Sculptures - Part I
Arte Latino Sculptures - Part II
Arte Latino Paintings - Part I
Arte Latino Paintings - Part II


Arte Latino Paintings - Part I [1]

Where Tears Can't Stop
Title: Where Tears Can't Stop (1986).
Artist: Carlos Alfonzo (1950-1991).
Technique and Materials: Acrylic on canvas.
Size: 243.2 (high) x 325.8 cm (wide).
Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Acquisition: Museum purchase made possible by the American Art Forum.
Comment[1]: In 1980, Carlos Alfonzo was among the many Cuban émigré who departed by boat from Mariel Harbor to come to the USA. In this large energetic painting, Alfonzo has included symbols from Santería - a religion the blends Roman Catholic and African spiritual traditions - alongside those of the Tarot and Rosicrucian mysticism. This visual hybrid of cultural beliefs and symbols suggests martyrdom and sacrifice. Indeed, Alfonzo's expressive, even painful image could be read as apocalyptic.

Homage to Still Life
Title: Homage to Still Life (1986).
Artist: Carlos Almaraz (1941-1989)
Technique and Materials: Oil on canvas.
Size: 182.9 (high) x 275 cm (wide).
Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Acquisition: Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Comment[1]: Carlos Almaraz is described as a "painterly painter" whose works are rich in thick, sensuous pigment. In "Homage to Still Life", Almaraz has combined still life elements of bottles, wine goblets, and fruit with female models and sculpture atop a pedestal, evoking the traditional studio space of the artist.

Eve before Adam
Title: Sueño (Dream: Eve before Adam) (1992).
Artist: Alfredo Arreguín (1935 - ).
Technique and Materials: Oil on canvas.
Size: 183.5 (high) x 366.4 cm (wide).
Note: A detailed section of the work.
Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Acquisition: Museum purchase made possible through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment and the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program.
Comment[1]: No comment provided on the author and artwork.

We are the light
Title: Somos La Luz (We are the light) (1992).
Artist: Charles "Chaz" Bojórquez (1949 - ).
Technique and Materials: Oil, aluminium paint, and aluminium leaf on canvas.
Size: 183.5 (high) x 366.4 cm (wide).
Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Acquisition: Museum purchased made possible through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment and the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program.
Comment[1]: No comment provided on the author and artwork.

Saint John Nepomuk
Title: San Juan Nepomuceno (Saint John Nepomuk) (ca. 1798).
Artist: José Campeche (1751-1809).
Technique and Materials: Oil on canvas.
Size: 106.1 (high) x 74.9 cm (wide).
Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Acquisition: Teodoro Vidal Collection.
Comment[1]: In the fourteeth century, John Nepomuk was the confessor to Queen Johanna of Bohemia. Her husband, King Wenceslaus IV, ordered the confessor killed when he refused to break the seal of confession and divulge the queen's secrets. He was canonized as a saint in 1729. José Campeche was the most significant Puerto Rican painter of portraits and religious imagery. Of African-Caribbean ancestry he was the son of a slave who purchased his freedom. Although basically self-taught, he was influenced by exiled Spanish court painter, Luis Paret Alcázar who lived in Puerto Rico from 1775 through to 1778.

Barrio Dog
Title: Humanscape 141: Barrio Dog (1987).
Artist: Mel Casas (1929-1987).
Technique and Materials: Acrylic on canvas.
Size: 190.5 (high) x 254 cm (wide).
Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Acquisition: Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment.
Comment[1]: In the mid-1960s, the surreality of projected images on large drive-in screen prompted Casas to begin a series he calls Humanscape. These large paintings use a movie-theatre format to critique and counter powerful media images from cinema, television and advertisements.
In this dazzling painting a large black dog from the Barrio growls at the viewer. With its full bristling coat, wide round eyes, and sharp white teeth, it spews spittle in all directions and emits bowguau, bilingual bark.
Señor Presidente's Wake
Title: Señor Presidente's Wake.
Artist: Alfredo Ceibal (1952 - ) (section view).
Technique and Materials: Acrylic on canvas.
Size: Not given.
Courtesy: Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Acquisition: Catherine Walden Myer Endowment, the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, and the Acquisitions Gift Fund.
Comment[1]: No comment given.


Reference:
[1] J. Yorba, Arte Latino: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York (2001).

Saturday, March 12, 2022

The Art of Ngarra [1]
Artist Profile

Marie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below other posts on Australian aboriginal textiles and artwork.
Untitled Artworks (Exhibition - ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions) Tjariya (Nungalka) Stanley and Tjunkaya Tapaya, Ernabella Arts (Australia)
ArtCloth from the Tiwi Islands
Aboriginal Batik From Central Australia
ArtCloth from Utopia
Aboriginal Art Appropriated by Non-Aboriginal Artists
ArtCloth from the Women of Ernabella
ArtCloth From Kaltjiti (Fregon)
Australian Aboriginal Silk Paintings
Contemporary Aboriginal Prints
Batiks from Kintore
Batiks From Warlpiri (Yuendumu)
Aboriginal Batiks From Northern Queensland
Artworks From Remote Aboriginal Communities
Urban Aboriginal ArtCloths
Western Australian Aboriginal Fabric Lengths
Northern Editions - Aboriginal Prints
Aboriginal Bark Paintings
Contemporary Aboriginal Posters (1984) - (1993)
The Art of Arthur Pambegan Jr
Aboriginal Art - Colour Power
Aboriginal Art - Part I
Aboriginal Art - Part II
The Art of Ngarra
The Paintings of Patrick Tjungurrayi
Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri


The Art of Ngarra (ca. 1920-2008) [1]
Warning: This post contains images of a deceased Aboriginal Elder. If you are an Australian indigeneous person you may not want to view it.

Ngarra on horseback
Distant photograph of Ngarra on horseback.

Like so many other indigeneous artist's, Ngarra embraced a career as a painter late in life.
"I have worked all my life. When the horse and cattle job finished up, I made myself into an artist and worked seven days a week no stop." He had announced his artistic intentions in 1994 to his friend, anthropolologist, Kevin Shaw. Both men, when on a trip together, were able to locate 20 different colors of ochre. This palette formed the basis of Ngarra's early works. They were unlike anything previously seen in ochre paintings and so formed a unique body of work.

Old buggered up bull
Title: Old buggered up bull (2005).
Medium and Technique: Acrylic on magnani paper.
Size: 35 cm (high) x 50 cm (wide).

Ngarra held his first exhibiton in 1996 and subsequently exhibited widely throughout Australia and overseas. He had a solo exhibition of his wirk at the Western Australian Museum in 2000 and was selected five times to exhibit at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

Mandewa dancing place for Andinyin, Kija and Gooniandi
Title: Mandewa dancing place for Andinyin, Kija and Gooniandi (2005).
Medium and Technique: Acrylic on magnani paper.
Size: 35 cm (high) x 50 cm (wide).

Displaying an extraordinary capacity for allegory and metaphor, Ngarra's paintings reveal his distinctive ability to transform elements of his traditional culture as well as to record his life working in the cattle industry into a compelling visual and socio-polictical experience.

Dancing Ground, Kija
Title: Dancing Ground, Kija (2004).
Medium and Technique: Acrylic on magnani paper.
Size: 35 cm (high) x 50 cm (wide).

His artistic work was driven by the urgency to document his extensive knowledge of a rapidly disappearing body of understanding. His paintings could be thought of as "bush contracts" that asserted his connection to the vast areas of country that was his home.

Untitled
Title: Untitled (2004).
Medium and Technique: Acrylic on magnani paper.
Size: 35 cm (high) x 50 cm (wide).

Besides containing an extraordinary depth of knowledge and learning Ngarra'a paintings are characterized by an explosive visual inventiveness and capacty for wit and subdued pathos that can be entirely disarming. Many of his artworks exhibit a whimsy that belies the depth of narrative and knowledge that these works exhibit.

Branggai (Honey Dream)
Title: Branggai (Honey Dream) (2005).
Medium and Technique: Acrylic on magnani paper.
Size: 35 cm (high) x 50 cm (wide).

He is an extraordinary colorist, conjuring highly specific tonal effects from a limited palette. Royal blues clash with vibrant greens, bold reds, and subtly shaded pinks.

Gorlulu (Special Cave in a Big Hill)
Title: Gorlulu (Special Cave in a Big Hill) (2005).
Medium and Technique: Acrylic on magnani paper.
Size: 35 cm (high) x 50 cm (wide).

On a warm and dry Saturday afternoon in November 2008, Ngarra died peacefully in Derby from secondary complications due to pneumonia. The full significance of his work, on both an aesthetic and a cultural level, is yet to be fully recognized.


Reference:
[1] N. Tapper, Remembers, Aboriginal Art, Issue 1, Caruana & Reid, Sydney April/May (2009).

Saturday, March 5, 2022

Home-Made Painting Art Materials
Art Resource

Marie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
This is the eighth post in a new Art Resource series that specifically focuses on techniques used in creating artworks. For your convenience I have listed all the posts in this new series below:
Drawing Art
Painting Art - Part I
Painting Art - Part II
Painting Art - Part III
Painting Art - Part IV
Painting Art - Part V
Painting Art - Part VI
Home-Made Painting Art Materials
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part I
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part II
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part I
Historical Notes on Art - Part II
Historical Notes on Art - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part IV
Historical Notes on Art - Part V
Tempera Painting
Oil Painting - Part I
Oil Painting - Part II
Oil Painting - Part III
Oil Painting - Part IV
Oil Painting - Part V
Oil Painting - Part VI
Pigments
Classification of Pigments - Part I
Classification of Pigments - Part II
Classification of Pigments - Part III
Pigments for Oil Painting
Pigments for Water Color
Pigments for Tempera Painting
Pigments for Pastel
Japanese Pigments

There have been one hundred and thirteen posts in a previous Art Resource series that focused on the following topics:
(i) Units used in dyeing and printing of fabrics.
(ii) Occupational, health & safety issues in an art studio.
(iii) Color theories and color schemes.
(iv) Optical properties of fiber materials.
(v) General properties of fiber polymers and fibers - Part I to Part V.
(vi) Protein fibers.
(vii) Natural and man-made cellulosic fibers.
(viii) Fiber blends and melt spun fibers.
(ix) Fabric construction.
(x) Techniques and woven fibers.
(xi) Basic and figured weaves.
(xii) Pile, woven and knot pile fabrics.
(xiii) Napped fabrics, double cloth and multicomponent fabrics.
(xiv) Fabric finishes.
(xv) Schrinkage, durable press and wash-wear finishes.
(xvi) Classification of dyes and dye blends.
(xvii) The general theory of printing.

To access any of the above resources click on the following link - Units Used in Dyeing and Printing of Fabrics. This link highlights the one hundred and thirteen posts in the previous Art Resource series.

There are eight data bases on this blogspot, namely: (1) the Glossary of Cultural and Architectural Terms; (2) Timelines of Fabrics, Dyes and Other Stuff; (3) A Fashion Data Base; (4) the Glossary of Colors, Dyes, Inks, Pigments and Resins; (5) the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns; (6) Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements; (7) Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms; (8) Glossary of Scientific Terms.
Note: From time-to-time all the above data bases will be updated.

If you find any post on this blog site useful, you can save it or copy and paste it into your own "Word" document for your future reference. For example, Safari allows you to save a post (e.g., click on "File", click on "Print" and release, click on "PDF" and then click on "Save As" and release - and a PDF should appear where you have stored it). Safari also allows you to mail a post to a friend (e.g., click on "File", and then point cursor to "Mail Contents On This Page" and release). Either way, this or any of the other posts on this site may be a useful Art Resource for you.

The new Art Resource series will be the first post in each calendar month. Remember, these Art Resource posts span information that will be useful for a home hobbyist to that required by a final year University Fine-Art student. Undoubtedly, some parts of any Art Resource post may appear far too technical for your needs (skip those mind boggling parts) and whilst other parts may be too simplistic with respect to your level of knowledge (ditto the skip). Hopefully, the trade-off between these two extremes will mean that the Art Resource posts will be useful in parts to most, but unfortunately, may not be satisfying to all!


Home-Made Painting Art Materials[1]
The artist's home manufacture of painting art materials has been criticized and defended on various grounds by twenty-fifth century commentators. The modern art painter who makes or refines his own materials does so because the particular quality she or he desires cannot be purchase. Their process demands certain operations which must be performed immediately before use, for reasons of economy, or because the artist enjoys it as an enlightening vocation.

Tom Deninger
Title: Self Portrait.
Artist: Tom Deninger.
Materials: Made from trash and found objects.


Tom Deninger
Title: Marilyn Munroe.
Artist: Tom Deninger.
Materials: Made from trash and found objects.

Well-directed experience in this activity is obviously one of the most valuable means of acquiring knowledge that leads to the control of materials. But note, newer materials produced by complex and sophisticated processes of modern synthetic chemistry are designed to meet very precise and definite specifications and so usually cannot be reproduced by artists whose scientific backgrounds are usually limited. For example, vinyl acetate has been used primarily to produce polyvinyl acetate emulsions and polyvinyl alcohol. The principle use of these emulsions has been in adhesives, paints, textiles, and paper products. The process is so complicated it would be bought rather than reproduced.

Use of Emulsions


The development of our modern industrial system on an economy of mass production makes it quite understandable why it is impossible for the producer of a raw material which is sold daily in freight-car lots to turn out with scrupulous care the insignificant few barrels of this product which artists of the world would consume annually. One of the contributing causes of the decline of standards for materials at the same time that advances in technology and knowledge made it possible to improve quality was the development of the paint and color industry from one which produced materials largely used for decorative purposes to one whose products are primarily used for large-scale industrial or protective purposes.

Pigments


Pigments, oils and other products, highly satisfactory for industrial purposes, but of quality inferior to the demands of artists' use, are made in enormous quantities. The superlative grades are produced on a much smaller scale and are not so widely available.

Products

The painter, sculptor, or graphic artist who is well acquainted with the properties of their materials are often able to improvise quite acceptable materials when for various reasons their supplies are unobtainable or when they are confronted by numerous minor emergencies which arise in the progress of their work.

Material Shortages
World-wide product shortages due to the Corona virus affecting labor and the product supply chain.

However, the writers or instructors who are intent upon conveying the most correct and approved ways of achieving good results do not necessarily concern themselves with possible remoteness from sources of supply and similar considerations. Hiler mentions some interesting emergency methods for the preparation of materials when the proper ingredients and ready-made supplies are not to be had (see - Notes on the Techniques of Painting, New York, Oxford University Press, 1954). For example, others in the area of dyeing, have reverted to natural dyes, instead of using commercially made dyes.

Wild Color
Wild Colour (how to make & use natural dyes) by Jenny Dean.
Comment: In Wild Colour, you will find the history of natural dyes, the equipment you will need, a list of different plants that you can use to obtain color with color swatches and much more.

It must be understood unless one had changed direction completely, no one recommends these expediences as regular procedure, and that artists should have sufficient experience to judge for themselves whether makeshift materials are suitable for their permanent work or whether their use should be confined to notes and sketches, or when the situation is such that the only choice is to use available inferior supplies or not to paint at all. The short-coming of common oils, decorators' pigments, home-made curd paints etc., are all well known to the careful student of materials.

Milk Paint
A recipe for milk paint: 1 lemon; 1 quart skim milk; strainer or sieve; cheesecloth; dry color pigment (optional); mask.

Inferior paints and supplies have always existed, and past generations of painters have always had to learn how to choose between permnanent and the impermanent, the good and the bad.

Perhaps the greatest reward to artists or students who have gone through the training and education of making their own paints is the insight into their control and behavior, which is invaluable in the practice of painting and the discriminating selection of supplies.

Art Supplies


Reference:
[1] The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, R. Mayer, (ed. E. Smith) 4th Edition, Faber and Faber, London (1981).