21 days in my art world – 2021, Days 15-21
Day 15: How I name my paintings prints
Monday 18 January 2020
The Challenge: How do you name your paintings?
My Response: Sometimes I find it easy, other times hard, the name my work. I like to title my work with some sort of emotive reference. I want for people to enjoy my work with their own interpretation and don’t want a name to necessarily influence that.
I love one- and two-word titles. The title has a relationship generally to the emotion of the moment I had with the image – but I know the reader or viewer will have their own experience and emotion in relation to it.
The titles of the work below are short and relate directly to the experience I had in the moments I enjoyed
Watching – I spent an afternoon watching a mother Tawny Frogmouth and her juvenile chicks. We watched each other – with curiosity and caution. This is one or my early reduction linocut prints, and still one of my most favourite.
Still – the COVID pandemic caused enormous disruption on a global scale. On my own personal scale, it gave me an opportunity, or rather forced me, to be still … still and rest and sit with the forced shutdown as we tried to contain the spread of the virus. One morning I ventured out to our local dam – it was early and quiet and still and misty … and beautiful. This tree on that morning says so much to me about that moment in time.
Be still – I was asked to share a pademelon image with my local rainforest reserve, Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve and Rainforest Discovery Centre. I printed this reduction linocut image of a mother red-legged pademelon and her joey. You can often see these little marsupials in the reserve at different times of the day, and the more still you are, the more you can see and observe. This mother and I sat with each other, still, observing and listening, for over 20 minutes. I’m sure she was trying to look invisible. I was enjoying the intimate experience.
Day 16: Smallest paintings print
Tuesday 19 January 2020
The Challenge: How small was the smallest painting you ever made? Today’s the day to share it with us, perhaps along with its size and how you feel about working at that scale.
My Response: Hmm? I don’t do much small work. The smallest pieces I have printed are small linocut prints for the Maleny Printmakers Collectable exhibitions. The paper size for these shows is approximately 12cm x 12cm.
The images below are past collectable prints – a linocut, encaustic collagraph print, monoprint and etching. Its nice looking back at them – maybe I need to print me some more little prints??
Day 17: Largest paintings print
Wednesday 20 January 2020
The Challenge: What’s the biggest size of canvas/paper/wall you’ve ever worked on? What was it like? Which do you prefer, large or small? Do you dream of painting murals? {Me too!} Tell us about your experiences making this big one!
My Response: I definitely dream of printing large! But the logistics are tricky. As far as reduction linocut goes – there would be a point with the registration of the layers where if would get very risky above a certain size. I have worked on large sheets of paper, but with images that don’t fill the sheet. I have also printed long landscape images that were not very deep. I admit that the length of the image tested me! The largest monotype prints I have printed are no more than approximately 40cm x 50cm. I dream of printing something as bag as the table I am sitting at now – but first to create the gel plate. Maybe I’ll set myself the task of doing that this year?
Day 18: Celebrate!
Thursday 21 January 2020
The Challenge: So today your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to publicly celebrate something you created or that otherwise came about through your art.
My Response: I want to celebrate a growing awareness of and appreciate for printmaking – further celebrating the support I receive for my workshops from students who want to learn the craft.
I feel that printmaking is considered the poor cousin in the art world, mainly because people don’t understand what is involved – the time, complexity, variety and process.
The more people who print and create and enjoy the art and processes, the greater the awareness and deeper the appreciation for it.
And I am thrilled beyond words to be able to facilitate a small portion of that growing awareness. Viva la printmaking !!
Day 19: From the archives
Friday 22 January 2020
The Challenge: Today, show us something you made a while ago. Depending on how long you’ve been making art, that could be twenty years or last week. There’s no time limit on archives, but I dare you to go back as far as you can! 😉
My Response: This one is hard given I trolled the archives in last years #21daysinmyartworld challenge to find one of my earlier reduction linocut prints from when I ventured back into the printmaking world – Stuck in Sydney.
So … looking back at earlier work, but a few years more recent than the previous, here is ‘Anchored‘, a 6 layer reduction linocut print. I am very fond of mangroves and the environment and ecosystem they create – safe havens for marine critters. And that sometimes extends to marine humans as they anchor the boats for respite from the open seas. I printed this 5 or 6 years ago, and it is still another favourite of mine.
Day 20: Favourite Techniques
Saturday 23 January 2020
The Challenge: What do you love doing so much you do it over and over? Have you learned or discovered a technique that contributes to the unique expression of your work? Do you have a specific way of finishing a painting, or starting one? You could share this in the form of a little video clip, a Boomerang, or stick to the usual photo {especially if you’d rather not share the details of this one!}.
My Response: I don’t think its too much of a secret that I love reduction linocut and gelatin plate monoprinting. For a long time the reduction linocut was my most favourite technique to work with, but I have to admit that over the past year I have vacillating between that and my monoprinting. They both feed different aspects of my head, heart and creative soul. Both very different processes, approaches and outcomes.
For a long time I generally worked in one process at a time. Experimenting, playing, printing. Then moving in to the other process. Recently I have been slowing my printing pace down, and moving between both processes on concurrent projects. And I’m really enjoying that.
Day 21: Big Dream
Sunday 24 January 2020
The Challenge: Tell us about a big dream you have for your art. Maybe it feels a bit scary to ‘say it out loud’, but how else will the universe hear you? ? And don’t feel it has to be fame or fortune. A big dream for one might be way too much for another. There’s power in stating what you want, so go for it! Let us cheer you on as you head towards your big dream!
My Response: My big dream … is to build an online space where I can help people create moments of creative respite using different printmaking processes. Processes that only need 15 minutes or 5 hours. Processes that can be done on the corner of the kitchen table, in the spare room, or a dedicated studio space. Processes that don’t need a lot of finanical or time investment to get creating. We all need some creativity in our lives – we are at our core creative beings. If a printmaking process can help someone find those moments of creative respite, I so want to help them do that.
And I have started to realise that dream with the building of my online learning portal at thestudio.kimherringe.com.au. I launched my first online workshop, Gelatin Plate Monoprinting, late last year. I’m a bit behind launching my 2nd workshop, Cyanotype, but it is coming.
The Studio online space contains more than ‘just’ online workshops. I am building an online version of my physical studio space – sharing all that students love about the space when they come to an in-person workshop, online. You can read a little more here, or hang tight for more announcements about this space over the coming months.
Would you like to look back at the previous 14 days?
Interested in checking back to 2020?
If you’re interested in #21daysinmyartworld last year, I split the challenge into three weekly posts:
