We've had a couple of rainy days at the cabin this week. Adding some gloom and darkness to the repertoire of summer days. We've been SO lucky this month of July to have day after day of sublime weather that it feels unfair to have to endure rain and wind.
It's about 66 this morning but will be warm and the weather man hints that this will blow off later this afternoon and give us back at least part of the day for outdoor things.
It is the weekend of the Northwoods Art Tour so having a rainy Saturday is really ill-timed for that. But hopefully we can enjoy that later in the day.
We are blissful in the quiet between two sets of guests...all as welcome and delightful as can be. BUT having some quiet time is essential for both of Greg and me. So I wander down to the pier/dock area by the lake to listen to "loon chatter" on the lake and do a little therapy of sketching.
I remembered that I had glued one of my gel-plate prints into the pages of one of my larger journals. I really had no idea how I would respond to the pages later but this week I was inspired (in the quiet) to try an ink and water soluble graphite sketch on top of the muted print.
The original print is acrylic on deli paper (which as a tiny bit of wax on it). I wasn't sure how ink would respond to that surface. Actually the ink went on fine but wetting the graphite was interesting and there was a little resist to that.
It's a common view for folks here at the cabin...the lake was off to my right and I was sitting on our deck. The boathouse is actually a center of activity for playing at the lake as it houses all the fishing equipment, boat supplies like oars and paddles, life jackets, hammocks, a small sailboat, swim noodles, goggles, and swim fins. It seemed right to immortalize it that day. (note, the old clock on the side is forever running out of batteries...it is now permanently set for afternoon tea time now at about 5:45 pm).
Working with the gel prints reminds me that I haven't done any for quite a long time but when I was cleaning in the studio last week I came upon a stash of "first drafts" that I left here years ago.
For those of you not familiar with mono printing...it is quite common to take first prints or ghost prints (2nd prints) and then re-purpose them with another layer or two of prints or stenciling to complete them.
So I think that most of my mono-printing will now be done at home in Madison, I am taking all the first drafts back with me and hope to get inspired this winter to go down to the University Woods art studio and spread them out and finish them!
We have about a week left here (with fun company) and then back to Madison for two weeks. We hope to come up the end of August again.
The first acorns are falling on the cabin roof now.
We had 8 loons visiting on the lake this week! (very common in July) but all but our pair have gone now. This summer the loons raised a baby which has been fun to watch.
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