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Marianne Courtenay.com.au
Making these Works
Digital Process
I see these works as a blending of my practice as a printmaker where I incorporate actual elements of my subjects in the making of the plates - leaves, bark and sand for example, and two and three dimensional assemblages using found items from the natural world. I have collected things such as nuts, flowers, leaves, bark, stones and more estoeric items - a seal's tooth found on a beach, the horns from a ram's skull, feathers from a 1920's coctail hat - scanned them on a small A4 scanner and then arranged and manipulated them using Photoshop.
In some instances I work on items before they are scanned; sometimes I scan them, manipulate them, print them, work on the image further by hand and then re-scan them. I also scan in drawings which are similarly modified and integrated into the work.
The process involves numerous stages of proofing, pinning works up on the wall or easel to assess the overall composition at full scale and to test different combinations, colours and other treatments. By the time each work is fiished virtually every element has been extensively manipulated and altered - even those that appear quitre natural. Finally the image is editioned using archival printing inks on high quality etching paper.
The works based on broken china are made in the same way only in these works the source materials, other than the old shards, draw upon my family history - old valued pieces of china, letters, photos, newspaper cuttings and other memorabilia.
Examples of the process taken from Towards Infinity.
