Sennen / proofing the edition
I’ve been working on this new drawing on and off for a couple of months now, and feel it merits some kind of outing, so I’m going to proof it, think about sizes, and make it into a piece for the Print Club. I think it’ll work best on a flat matt paper, so I’m going to try it on the Hahnemühle 305gsm 100% cotton rag, at least to start with.
I started drawing this piece in response to my XGen CV series, sometime back in the Spring. Like XGen, it takes on the idea of creating an underlying grid structure and then building some kind of framework around it, that pushes the geometry in some unexpected and hopefully quite lyrical ways.
XGen / EPC edition #21 dispatched
I'm just scribbling a quick note to say that edition #21 of my Print Club will be in the post today. I hope it'll brighten up your spring, with a blast of colour. That's certainly my intention for this piece!
I'll look forward to writing a longer email about the work, and the studio asap, but for today I just wanted to let you know that I'm packing and addressing the parcels this morning, so you can look out for the print in the mail.
XGen 2 / six new works on paper
I’ve spent the first few weeks of 2022 working on a new set of drawings, exploring and riffing on the energy contained within a simple X form.
XGen 2 / chromatic variations reference the underlying geometry used to generate the drawings, whilst simultaneously experimenting with colour and mark making, to work up the images into something a little more painterly than many of my previous editions have been.
XGen / TWO / initial colour studies
I’ve started work on a new series, the second of my XGen studies, that are exploring, and riffing on, the energy contained within a simple X form.
These latest drawings have taken on a few lessons from the Stellify 4 folded works that I made in December. In particular the idea of using colour blocks, or more specifically multiple coloured areas within a single study, as opposed to toning the whole image as a single more sculptural piece.
It’s an idea that gives a far more geometric feel to the final images, and maybe more punch?
Stellify 4 / EPC Edition #19 / dispatched
Pleased to say that I've dispatched the latest Print Club edition, #19, today. I've yet to complete and pack the 2nd piece, edition #20, as it needs a little more tweaking, but I thought I'd get this first one of the two out today so that it'll arrive before Christmas.
Paean / One day in May / Print Club ed #14 in progress
I wanted to make a piece for the Print Club that would speak about the lockdown, but also of joy, the beauty of nature, and the inspiration that manifests, whilst also continuing with the idea of the moment in time, and the specificity of a place, that I hope has been one of the major threads of the print club project to date
Critique and action / Plastic pastoral / Tao
These two latest prints are entitled Tao. One is earth, one is sand. Back in the eighties when my main concern would’ve simply been about how to create and sustain a creative studio practice, I was hugely influenced and impressed by the work of April Greiman. I’m not sure if her works have stood the test of time, but in many ways that is not the point, I love the idea that a work in some way defines or represents the moment that it is made in.
Print Club, edition 13 in progress
I’m working on some initial colour proofs for my first Experimental Print Club edition of 2020. If you’d like to know more about my Print Club. It’s an ongoing experiment in contemporary print, and an opportunity to collect exclusive limited edition works from the studio, posted out directly to club members, alongside invitations to events, and studio news. All powered by Patreon.
Pride 2020
Starting the week with a post to highlight my recent work in support of the the LGBT Foundation. The Pride print is available as an open edition for 12 months only, ending on 31st October 2020. You can read more about the work on Blackwater’s website
10 Artworks From Artnet’s Gallery Network
interStella / Quad by Chuck Elliott. Inspired by the work of Frank Stella, this geometric pattern print riffs on ideas of the changing seasons and plant life through bold and bright colours. The colour saturated work is sure to enliven a winter day. Sara Carson
interStella / QUAD
intersStella is a new series of sixteen drawings, arranged into four quads, with four works in each quad. These new works on paper comprise Venn like geometries based on circadian rhythms, bought to life with a series of sixteen colour variants, which I hope speak to the idea of the four seasons, plant life, and perhaps tulips in particular. They clearly also riff on the work of Frank Stella, a true hero of colour abstraction
Hive #1 / EPC / duality : singularity
I’ve been working on a new series of drawings called Hive. It’s currently unclear exactly how these studies are going to ultimately manifest themselves, but I suspect it’ll be as a series of large format panels, possibly in sequence. For the moment however, I thought I’d print a single, smaller component of the series as a new piece for my Experimental Print Club. I’ve been thinking about the nature and problem of working in a rapidly climate changing world, and how best to integrate that thinking with my daily studio practice, both as a series of reflections, which is a large part of what the studio is about I think, and as physical works that can create some kind of response to the concepts we’re being asked to consider, and act on.
Experimental Print Club #11
I’ve just dispatched edition #11 for the print club. It’s titled interStella / EPC / home. The piece combines a variant from my new interStella series with photography from the garden, specifically the soil under my sweet peas. I like the idea of experimenting with ideas around combining drawing and photography, and of course the subject matter alludes to ideas including the sense of place, the idea of growth, and the earth, or soil, as root, and begins to unpack some new ideas about permaculture, and how that may sit with my practice in the future.
interStella 2019
I’ve been working on a new series of 16 drawings, entitled interStella. It’s kind of a mash up of a number of geometries I’ve been studying, but most obviously an exploration, and complication, of the maths underlying the early works of American legend Frank Stella. I first saw his beautiful, epic, artworks at MOCA in LA in 1991, and was completely blown away. So it’s been on my mind for a long time to try and unpack some of his thinking, and riff on that beautiful style that came out of NYC in the late sixties. I hope I’ve bought a little fresh thinking and technique to bear too.
Stellify 3 / EPC / Experimental Print Club Edition #10
I’m just completing the first of what I hope will be quite a few new Print Club editions for 2019. It’s a little behind the spring equinox, but nevertheless I hope it may represent a small celebration of the lengthening days, and increasing light levels as we head into the summer. It’s an exciting time of year to my mind…
Stellify EPC in progress, Feb 5th 2019
Thought it was about time I sent over a sketch of my latest Print Club offering. Not entirely sure where the work is headed yet, but thought you might be interested to see an in progress image - Stellify EPC v04 SET_A 12k COMP v09 FLAT. You can tell from the working title that there have been quite a few iterations of this piece already.
Happy New Year!
I was visiting Ripe Digital recently, a superb short run commercial digital printer based locally in Corsham, where Bath School of Art have some of their studio space, and Howard Hodgkin used to teach. Rik at Ripe Digital introduced me to their new digital foiling machine. In essence, this is a short run, or one off, opportunity to apply metallic foils to my print work. A process that previously demanded bespoke metal dies and long print runs to be even vaguely affordable. It's an idea /process that I hope will continue on from where the recent Klint / cut piece left off.
So I'm experimenting with the idea of making a pair of foil based works for the club, in which several, perhaps four, coloured foils will be used to create two new works, probably with some inked areas too. Maybe ish 12 inches square each. Not sure yet, but will keep you posted as the work progresses.
Klint / CUT, Experimental Print Club Edition #9
Spent a good day yesterday working on the 9th edition for my Experimental Print Club. I’ve been making 3 or 4 smaller ephemeral works on paper each year for the club, as a kind of loosening up idea, with the intention of trying out new ideas that may feedback into my main practice, whilst simultaneously creating some hopefully quite collectable smaller works that go out to club members in the post. It’s a nice concept that coerces me to make some new smaller works each year.
EPC edition 9, Klint / cut
I’m just on the brink of making Edition 9 for the print club. The autumn edition for 2018. Having told you that I'm planning to make a piece on silk, and a ‘mantle piece’ in my last post (I’m still intent on making both of these) I’ve been somewhat waylaid by an interesting colour proof print experiment, which I think will make a good new edition to colour up the autumn. Time will tell. In essence it’s a kind of collage from some proofs of my Klint prints, mixed with some foil fragments, collaged onto a sheet of Somerset paper, by way of a backing sheet, with debossing. That's the plan anyway, I'll send some progress images shortly…
Print Club Edition 8
Edition 8 is going to be a celebration of Spring, and in particular that particularly beautiful combination of greens, pinks and deeper carmines that marks out the first flush of really powerful colour that comes out here in May. I've attached an image here of my new tulip border, that I planted deep in the midst of last winter, with freezing hands, sure in the knowledge that I would get a sensational blast of colour as the gardening year really gets going this spring. I have to say that I didn't plan for the bright orange ones, but in fact they have been a serendipitous addition that has no doubt been bolder and better than my original choices.