PROJECT #12: Di Padmore - Gelli Plate Printmaking

Di Padmore - Gelli Plate Printmaking

The Wall Project #12 dates; July 20th - 30th July

The project is an exploration into the use of homemade gelatine plates to create monotypes in response to investigations of a site or particular aspect of Taree and its surrounds.

Why use a gelatine plate? With real gelatine, the plate is somewhat moist so the paint stays wet a little longer, giving you more time to work, and more prints per single paint application. The wigglyness and slight give of the gelatin is able to produce both soft muted tones and clear crisp lines for a much more detailed print. The plate is simple to make and no printing press is needed. If you are really adventurous you can even make prints out in the field.

This is printmaking in a very direct instinctual form using water-based inks, acrylics and watercolour with hand pressure to pull the prints. The broader objective of the project is to push my artistic practice further into the creation of larger scale monotype images that directly capture the essence of an environment, the people and a place from the representational to the more abstract image.

On the Wall I will display a list of the sites I will be visiting and invite the community to come and explore with me. Each day I will visit a site for approximately 2 hours and do a number of sketches of the environment, engage with community members who are passing, collect found items, create rubbings of interesting textures in the environment, take photos with my iPad and make notes of my feelings and sense of the place to capture the experience of the site.

At the gallery to create monotypes using the gelatine plates, I will be using a variety of:

• techniques - stencils, found items, direct painting on the plate, colour and ink manipulation, and
• surfaces - postcards, found papers, copy paper, old maps, traditional printmaking surfaces.

Interested community members can participate both in the on site visits and the production of prints at the gallery. I will have with me a number of smaller homemade gelatine plates and simple tools for creating an image to allow accessible experimentation and play by members of the community. The intention is to allow as many people as possible to play with a gelatine plate to produce an artwork. I would also like to include some of these community artworks on the wall.