Leaf Prints

Leaf print on monoprint by Phillip Hoyle 2017

Between writing paragraphs and stories I am still finding my way to my basement studio to experiment with printing. I use leaves I pressed last autumn and finally have made quite a few prints. But for me the approach is still experimental and I'm contented with the artistic play. Comparing my prints with those showing up in books in the subject, I am learning, getting the feel of it. I realize I may ruin quite a few leaves before I am satisfied with the basic technique! But that medium is very costly to the leaves. 

Oak leaves last longer for experimenting. So do cottonwood leaves. But the elm leaves are less hardy. The oak leaf on the print shown above is ten inches in length and, to my way of thinking, a beautiful specimen. The largest of the elm leaves below is eight inches long! I found it in our neighbor's yard, the product of a huge American elm tree. I'm enjoying the leaves and the process.

Elm leaf prints on paper by Phillip Hoyle, 2017

Art Wars

Leaf prints on Thai paper. Phillip Hoyle 2017

I haven't felt so artistically challenged for years, and it's my own fault. But I don't play a blame game in my retired life. I had the opportunity to sign up for a writing class, one on the short memoir, one that promised to get at what was hanging me up in my writing. I signed up and am now on the final sprint to get the rough draft done. It's due on Saturday morning. 

The feeling of war comes from trying to balance my need to do visual arts as well as written, to keep up my blog postings as well as write paragraphs, to solve placement on paper as well as craft  well-proportioned paragraphs. I'm not bragging, just explaining why the art prints shown here are in process. My paragraphs are as well. I have to grin and bear it and ask you to do the same. Perhaps in a couple of weeks one of these prints will show up in final form. I hope so. 

Oak leaf print. Phillip Hoyle 2017

Artist Cocktails ATCs

Cocktail Artist Trading Cards by Phillip Hoyle 2017
collage on monoprints. 

Finally I have something to post. It seems like it's been a long time. I have been working but am beginning to feel like some retired people I used to know who claimed to never have been busier in their lives. I didn't believe them and I certainly do not claim that for myself. My problem is that I have signed up for a writing class and want to get my money's worth. So I'm writing.

I've also been printing using the leaves I collected last fall. It's fun, but I find finishing a piece to my satisfaction is a continuing challenge. Hopefully I'll post something next week ... or the next. 

I'm not much of a drinker and so felt at a loss when the topic for last week's trade was cocktails or, as some people planned to follow, cock tails as in cock-a-do-del-do. I went with the drinks, well actually some of the stemware used to serve them. Design took over and I had a lot of fun. Hope you are having fun with your arts too. 

Cocktail ATCs by Phillip Hoyle 2017
Collage on monoprints

Artist Trading Card Abstracts

ATCs by Phillip Hoyle, January 2017

Finally I am back to work. Actually I've been making cards and planning a number of new prints, even doing some. I have had difficulty getting around to posting! 

Again, Happy New Year. It's almost one twelvth gone. Time flies. The last ATC workshop and swap I attended had the topic Abstract. I enjoyed the freedom and the required concentration. So I'm presenting some of them here. Prints and collages. I did enjoy the challenge. I hope next week to show something more from this week's efforts. 

Happy art in the new year.

ATC's by  Phillip Hoyle, January 2017

Birds Art New Year

ATCs by Phillip Hoyle, 2017 Mixed media

I've been away for a month but am back at work now to post my  192nd blog with artwork. Again I have made Artist Trading Cards ready to trade next week. Birds was the selected topic and so I recalled seeing migrating geese and other birds while traveling by car across Missouri and Kansas on my way back to Colorado. the unusual part of it was we were seeing them in flight on the last day of December. That's late, a testimony to a very mild fall or birds that had lost their calendars. 

Use your imagination. I tried using mine. And Happy New Year 2017.

Birds in migration across the plains
ATCs by Phillip Hoyle 2017

Christmas Cards Galore

Christmas Cards printed on Gel plate with stincils. Golden Open paint.
Monoprints by Phillip Hoyle 2016

I am so pleased to tell you I got fifty cards done. Then I counted how many I needed and found I could have stopped at thirty or forty! Oh well, I went at it with enthusiasm and kept experimenting with my techniques. 

Each of the cards is different from the others. And they come in two basic ideas. Those above are prints made directly onto the card stock. They have a very modern look. I hope the folk who get them will appreciate what they get!

The other basic design was to print on pages from an old German Lutheran Hymnbook. I used the same gel plate and stincils. I glued the prints onto the card stock. 

Cards with hymn page prints made on gel plates and glued on cards.
Monoprints by Phillip Hoyle, 2016

Then the other jobs: writing the greeting for inside, printing it, gluing the pages into the cards, signing each card, updating the address list, writing the return address on each envelope, and then going through the list hoping to get each address correct and legible. I am so happy to be almost done with the process. 

I made more Artist Trading Cards using the same stincils and suspect you will find some here next Monday. 

Happy Holidays.

Denver, 2016

Christmas Art

Prints made on gel plate on Advent pages from old hymnal
Phillip  Hoyle 2016

Every year I wonder just what artistic things will happen to welcome Christmas. I start imagining, sketching, and gathering possible materials for cards, larger pieces of art, Artist Trading Cards, and other pieces on related themes. So far this year I've made prints on card stock, old pages from a 19th Century German hymnal, monoprints, stincils, collages, and the like for a Christmas card. I've printed on many kinds of paper to see just what will work. I'm already gluing pieces together and writing down some ideas for a general greeting. And, of course, I feel like I am running out of time. 

Monoprint using stincil on gel plate.
Print on envelope.
Phillip Hoyle 2016

But I'm having fun and will begin a new Art Journal featuring holy people. I haven't limited my idea yet and so have no sure aim at ancient or contemporary, a single religious tradition or something eucmenical, people or symbols. But I remind myself that journals do not need to be overly planned. they need to respond to the turns of a day or a week. Journals reflect a journey. They log progress and regress. They express just what is happening at the time. 

Print on freezer paper
Phillip Hoyle 2016

I hope to present you with great variety in the coming weeks. Again, thanks for your responses. The old year flees, the new year approaches. Celebrate both with art and love.

Denver, 2016