On a warm, sunny day last year, I paid a visit to Margam Park in Wales. Wandering through the grounds, the sound of birdsong and beating wings filled the air as birds swooped down to catch insects amongst the garden borders. The gardens are very formal and complement the gothic castle standing majestically behind with its intricately patterned chimneys and turrets.
The gothic castle is rather overwhelming in its grand scale. A stunning piece of architecture that can be seen from miles around. Meanwhile, in the shadows of the castle sits the ruins of Margam Abbey, its deep stone walls still impressively holding onto their clover shaped windows. I could imagine the ruins looking so dramatic with the right conditions, sun rays or a vibrant sunset behind and perhaps mist hanging in the air.
Back home, using a drawing and a few photos, I set about creating the collagraph. The angle from which I depicted the ruins has the church immediately behind, I decided to leave this out to focus purely on the ruins. I used a craft knife to cut deep lines where I wanted detailed marks such as a few of the outlines of stonework. I also stripped the top layer of card off in parts to reveal a roughly textured surface beneath, this would collect ink on printing to create a mid tone. Lastly I added carborundum grit, this went in areas where I wanted a rich coating of ink to sit.
After sealing the collagraph I was ready to print some proofs. For my first print, I used sepia colour ink to see how the plate printed and understand how best to ink up and wipe back the plate. With its fine detail and subtle texture in the stonework, I found it all too easy to overwipe and lose intricacies.
For my second proof I used yellow ochre followed by a drop of prussian blue. This print had an interesting sky but it did seem to dominate over the ruins. I also found that the piece needed tying together better, there was too much empty space between the sky and ruins and the ruins and grass, a subtle layer to show the horizon line would help solve this issue.
Using these prints to inform me, I began my next print. I inked up differently this time, using a roller, I applied a layer of blue relief ink (a mixture of prussian blue, red and white), just a band at the top and another at the bottom to the level of the horizon. The relief ink is a bit smoother and slightly thinner so lends itself better to being applied with the roller.
I then gently wiped the ink back at the edges where it met the uninked area in the centre of the collagraph plate to soften it.
Following this print, I inked up as usual in yellow ochre over the whole plate. This resulted in quite a dramatic looking image. The blue looked a bit dark and domineering. My plan had originally been to then add a layer of dark blue over the top. However on seeing this print, I felt it was dark enough and I was happy with some of the marks in the sky and the detail of the ruins, adding another layer might have hidden some of these intricacies. Instead I decided to fade the blue in the sky somewhat by adding a layer of white over the area where the sky meets the top of the ruins.
I am pleased with areas of this print like the sky and ruins. I feel the foreground is a bit heavy and dark losing some of the detail. It would be good to see a few more blades of grass highlighted. But I can see promise in this print and that is what encourages me to experiment further.