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Latest monotype prints from my studio

I’m posting below the latest small monotype prints from my last studio session. Nos. 2 and 4 have a similar Hubble feel to the others, while 1 and 3 seem to have found their own way.

Are these finished, do you think? I’m not sure. I know from experience with these small works that it is very easy it is to go one step too far and lose it. Because they are so small, there isn’t much room to manoeuvre if marks end up in the wrong place. Of course, that also means there isn’t much lost if a print fails.

Even so, I don’t immediately throw away prints that look like failures. Instead, I add them to a ‘slush pile’ which I review from time to time. This includes anything from monotype prints like these to collagraphs, drypoints or digital prints. It is surprising how impressions can change once the process of making has been forgotten. After a while, you see the image as if for the first time. Sometimes reviewing two disparate images can give that spark you need to work out what to do next.

Monotype print in blue and yellow
Work in progress 1
Monotype gel print with blue background overlain with amorphous shapes in red and yellow
Work in Progress 2
Monotype gel print with a large block of orange yellow at the top and narrow irregular purple band at the bottom. The purple band has three delta shapes in different greens over the top
Work in progress 3
Monotype gel print, broken purple background, largely overlaid by an amorphous semi-transparent block of yellow.
Work in progress 4