I’ve told you many times before how I love to observe the changing seasons, the way the colours bloom and fade, shifting and changing. I love to see the changing cast of characters too, which plants are emerging, which are flowering and which are fruiting, which birds have appeared and who’s moved on. My daily walks provide a wealth of inspiration, suggesting colour palettes to try, forms to draw and more. I like being able to look back through my sketchbooks and see the changing seasons captured there.
June 2021
This connection to the cycles of the natural world has become increasingly important to me both personally and in terms of my work over the last few years. I think over the last 18 months it’s become important to a lot of other people too as we’ve all spent more time in our local areas and had time to notice things a bit more. Usually when I come back from my walks I have at least a few treasures with me and these often find their way into my daily drawing and sometimes other pieces as well.
Cyanotype on paper, midsummer 2021
The beautiful sunshine we’ve had recently has given me a chance to connect with my gathered treasures and the seasons via one of my favourite forms of printmaking; cyanotypes. Cyanotype prints, or blueprints, are one of the earliest forms of photography. Chemicals are applied to paper (or fabric) and then a negative (this could be an image, a leaf, anything really) is placed on top and the whole lot is exposed to sunlight. The UV rays in sunshine cause a chemical reaction that turns the paper blue but where it is covered by the negative it remains white. As well as being used for actual architectural blueprints many botanists used the cyanotype process to make a record of different species they’d discovered.
Cyanotype on fabric, midsummer 2021
Recently I’ve been experimenting with applying the cyanotype chemicals in a more painterly way, I’ve been less worried about evenly coating my paper and fabric but aiming instead for a more organic effect. I’ve been working on some circular prints, painting the chemicals on with a big brush in broad strokes and not worrying too much about getting it even. I’ve then been using my gathered treasures as negatives to capture a moment in time. I paint on the chemicals, lay out my treasures and then expose it to the sunshine before washing the print to fix it. The uneven application of the chemicals results in lots of variation, creating a sense of movement in these pieces which I really like.
I love all the connections with this process; plants are gathered from my walks, arranged on the paper or fabric and then the sunlight that helped them grow creates their image. It’s a very simple and really quite easy process and if you don’t fancy messing around mixing up chemicals you can buy sheets of ready prepared cyanotype paper and fabric (just remember to keep them out of the light until you’re ready to print!) All you need is a sunny day, water and some foraged treasures. It’s quite breezy here by the sea so I tend to use glass to hold my treasures in place whilst I’m printing them but this isn’t essential. Why not have a go and capture some sunny day memories onto paper? I also have a few cyanotype prints in my Folksy shop (more to come soon!) if you fancy a look.
Cyanotype on fabric with hand embroidery
Until next time; enjoy the sunshine and see how you can use it creatively!
Helen
