Symbols and endings
This post is in two parts- it starts with the last of the South Pennine Paths collection - and finishes with some reflections and initial thoughts about future plans.
This plate is from a late afternoon walk across Withens Moor, where a series of flagstones ease the the path across an otherwise tricky stretch of peat bog. Many of these stones are recycled gateposts and such.
This stone is deeply cut for a purpose I cannot discern, but these graphic symbols appear almost as writing. But if writing, it is unclear about what and for whom, particularly as the only common visitors to this open moorland are curlew and skylark.
Withens Moor 24 July 2018 20:07. Photo-etching 2019
This is an interesting plate, with the central symbols sliced by deep shadows from the evening sun. The overall effect became overwhelming when re-worked, so I ground the plate to one side- which opened up more possibilities.
I then under-printed with freshly ground inks, warming up the final impressions.
Withens Moor 24 July 2018 20:07. Photo-etching and monoprint. 2020
Withens Moor 24 July 2018 20:07. Photo-etching and monoprint. 2020
So, to the end of this blog about putting a virtual exhibition together. Completing this collection has taken longer than anticipated. Selecting and editing the images for presentation, preparing the narrative and organising the web-pages all together were a great way to review the work, remember the the places and consider the methods of production. All of this was under pandemic constraints- with no opportunity for re-visiting, for improving or revising the prints. Not that I’ve wanted to, this review has made it clear that the work had reached a conclusion.
I’m happy to have reached this point and to have the opportunity to consider what next. I can now re-organise these South Pennine Paths prints into a definitive collection on this website. Further, I am still committed to landscape-based work, but the next phase is likely closer to home.
Any exhibition of this work beyond the virtual realm is sadly still some way off.
I hope the blog has provided some insight into the work, how it arose and was produced. I am yet to decide what place a blog might play in developing or documenting future work, so am happy to hear views.
With all good wishes
Mark
Memory
I was convinced that the photographs for both last week’s posting and for this were both taken in midsummer, when everything was dry. This is the case for many images in this collection; those taken in the summer of 2018.
These were both certainly taken within minutes of each other on the same stretch of road up to Warland reservoir. However, In preparing this post, I spotted inconsistencies in the timings assigned to them, so went back to check the source images. This confirmed that, rather than dry midsummer, this was late spring, in far from clement weather. Indeed, these photos were among many taken of damp places that day.
So, it seems my records have corrected my memory, and I have redrafted both this posting and the last.
In any case, this hollow was drying out more slowly than most that day:
Wet Warland Road. 28 April 2017 14:30. Photo-etching 2019
Two sets of masked under-printing with monoprint follow:
Wet Warland Road. 28 April 2017 14:30. Photo-etching and monoprint 2019
Which are strongly reminiscent of the beaches on the Northumberland coast.
Wet Warland Road. 28 April 2017 14:30. Photo-etching and monoprint 2019
Empty
The steep sides of the Pennine valleys are dissected by tracks winding slowly uphill. This image is from one such road that crosses the floor of the Calder valley then climbs towards Warland Reservoir. When I passed this section a couple of years ago, the track was broken in several places, leaving a series of hollows, lined with grit and hard-core, with some hinting at its more usual state.
Warland Road 28 April 2017 14:30 Photo-etching 2020
This plate required several sessions of printing to get right. It took a while to realise that plate itself needed attention. Grinding one side of the plate made for a section of narrower tonal range, which then made under-printing possible.
Warland Road 28 April 2017 14:31 Photo-etching and monoprint 2020
Warland Road28 April 2017 14:31 Photo-etching and monoprint 2019
An afterthought- this series might be seen as a plea for road repairs in a particular place. It is not, rather it draws attention to the way we interact with landscapes. These interactions are not stable. Perhaps to underscore this point, the last time I passed this spot, I can here record this section of track had undergone extensive repair.
Dry
This series is based on a photograph taken whilst walking beside the drain that feeds the Warland Reservoir. On this warm, dry evening, no water was passing through the drain, and the reservoir itself was almost empty.
These seed-heads had dropped onto the middle of the path and as there was hardly a breath of wind, they were spontaneously breaking up where they lay.
This evening walk was very different from my usual experience of Pennine upland paths. They are more usually partially submerged in peaty water, whose surface is broken by fresh winds or obscured through mist or rain.
So this evening seems worth recording.
Warland Drain 24 July 2018 20:20. Photo-etching 2020
The rest of this series is under-printed with monoprint, using hand-ground ink, warming up the final result.
Warland Drain 24 July 2018 20:20. Photo-etching and monoprint 2020
Warland Drain 24 July 2018 20:20. Photo-etching and monoprint 2020
This under-printing also tends to smooth out the image. So, some I have also over-painted with gouache to re-emphasise both the seed-heads and the grittiness of the path.
Warland Drain 24 July 2018 20:20. Photo-etching with monoprint and handpainted detail 2020
Warland Drain 24 July 2018 20:20. Photo-etching with monoprint and handpainted detail 2020
Transience and persistence
This series has only one finalised print. Its story is one of persistence. The first prints I made from this plate were unsatisfactory, so I put it to one side. Having worked on different approaches to other images, which I thought would help here, I pulled it our again. However, I couldn’t replicate the crispness and definition achieved in earlier impressions. It took me a whole day of step-wise process alterations to work out the problem. It was the plate being clogged with old, dried out ink. I left the studio thinking the day’s work a failure. Nevertheless, I wrapped up the prints and took them home. The following week I pressed on to correct my error, first cleaning the plate thoroughly.
I didn’t open the first tissue-wrapped prints until I was later pressed to make a quick decision. I was due to visit a former colleague, recently admitted to the nearby St Cuthbert’s hospice. As he was always interested in my artwork, I wanted to show him a few recent representative prints.
On opening the package I had wrapped in the studio, it was clear that my error had become a strength. The indistinct image from the sparsely inked plate was exactly the right treatment for this transient subject. It was one of the half-dozen prints I took to show my colleague, and deserves to stand alone in this collection.
Ash Leaf, Low Laithe Dam 28 May 2018 15:22. Photo-etching and monoprint. 2020
Just to complete the story the later impression of the ‘rectified’ printing is shown below, a far more distinct image, but much less of what had originally impressed me.
Ash Leaf, Low Laithe Dam 28 May 2018 15:22. Photo-etching and monoprint. Proof. 2020
And the the original photo-etching alone:
Ash Leaf, Low Laithe Dam 28 May 2018 15:22. Photo-etching and monoprint. Proof 2020