Print Club News / March 2024
Having been a Print Club member for a while now you’ll already know that I’m a keen gardener, I love the opportunity to spend a little time outdoors each day as the year warms up. We’ve reached the point in the cycle where everything is growing fast, shoots and weeds, trees coming into leaf and bulbs appearing from the soil. It’s a beautiful moment, and one which I always greet by trying to get an hour outside first thing in the morning, at least three or four times each week if possible, before settling into my studio with a mug of tea for the day.
The balance between what happens in the garden and what happens in the studio continues to inform the project, if only in my imagination, although I did find myself talking about the connections between the plants I grow and the work I make at the Battersea AAF this month, preferring to discuss this narrative rather than just simply talking about the physicality of the materials and techniques I use. Maybe I’ll take a few photos over the next few weeks to share with you here…
Spike Print
I’ve enrolled for a new course at Spike Print Studio, taught by the indefatigable Martyn Grimmer. I think some people call this CPD or continuous professional development, but in my case I think that’s probably a bit of a stretch! I love the idea of having an opportunity to try out some new techniques though, and seeing how I may be able to integrate these more traditional print making methods into my core practice.
So starting in mid April I’ll be making photopolymer etchings from my original CAD drawings, a technique that involves exposing light through a transparency onto photo sensitive metal plates, which are then inked and pulled on a traditional intaglio press. I’m pretty confident this work will make for a good new edition for the club, and hopefully some interesting content for my blog too.
Laser Cut Editions
About three or four year ago I realised that I could utilise the central core that is cut away each time I make a toroid piece with a Diasec mount. As such, I’ve been quietly collecting a good number of small studies, or maquettes, that have the same production values as my main gallery pieces.
I think I have enough good sized pieces now to use them as a Print Club edition, so if you’re currently subscribed, I should be able to send one out to you before midsummer. That’s the plan. I’ve included a teaser photo here, in which you can see the pieces before the opaque protective film is removed. I’m looking forward to making the subframes and just generally getting them polished up and ready to go.
Tessellation
I’m working on a new series of drawings that feature the idea of tessellation. It’s something that I’ve always been fascinated by and that I hope may lead to a beautiful new series of colour shifting works. I’m hoping one of these first sets of experimental drawings may also provide the material for a Print Club edition later this year. We’ll see!
Battersea AAF
We had a pretty successful fair at Battersea this March, and it was really lovely to catch up with a few club members there too, I hope you enjoyed the exhibition. It’s the first time I’ve taken a stand there since 2017, when I started exhibiting with TAG Fine Arts rather than continuing with my Transistor project. But as the cycle moves on, it’s become clear that in order to get the latest larger works exhibited, there’s some real advantage to taking on your own space, and curating it accordingly.
The gallery system in this moment seems to have a tendency to spread bet across a wide and diverse set of artists in the hope of making myriad new connections, but this of course predicates away from showing a broader set of pieces by a specific individual artist. So I’m planning to be back in Battersea for the autumn event, hopefully with at least a couple of good new studies from the spring and summer, I’ll keep you up to date with plans for that event as the summer comes in.
Thanks so much for reading this far, and I hope you’ll enjoy the club this year!
Chuck Elliott
If you’d like to receive three or four exclusive new editions in the post each year, alongside personal news and views from the studio, and invitations to shows and fairs, please do consider becoming a member of my Experimental Print Club. You can join or leave the club at any time, with absolutely no obligation to stay any longer than you want to.
New works are sent out somewhat sporadically throughout the year, often in line with the changing seasons. Each piece is unique, exclusive, and only available on the day it’s editioned, the size of the edition being determined by the number of members on the day.
I hope the club presents a more personal and intriguing way to connect with the studio, by creating a platform for collecting engaging new works for your home. The club is hosted online here, and I send out fairly regular blog posts and emails about the work too. I’d like to think that it’s an interesting proposition!
Membership is currently priced at £36 per month inc. UK delivery, or £42 for an international address.
