Pennsylvania Farms — In Clay
Thanks to the Brandywine Museum of Art staff for the opportunity to attend a plein air day in October (2024) at the historic Kuerner Farm in Chadds Ford.
“Chadds Ford Barn” — Clay Monoprint & Acrylic © Andrew T. Smith of Visual Realia, LLC.
“Farm Field with Flowers” — Clay Monoprint, Watercolor, Colored Pencil, and Acrylic Marker © Andrew T. Smith of Visual Realia, LLC.
Thanks to the Brandywine Museum of Art staff for the opportunity to attend a plein air day in October (2024) at the historic Kuerner Farm in Chadds Ford. Andrew Wyeth created over 1,000 works based on people, places, items, and scenes from the farm over a seven-decade period, including over two hundred works with images of Helga Testorf, who was employed at the farm.
A new exhibit focusing on images from the farm is scheduled to open at the Brandywine in June 2025.
I did not take my clay monoprint materials but captured many photographs during the day. While not an attempt to capture the farm literally, the two clay monoprint mixed media works shown here were inspired by the visit. They are currently on display and available for purchase at York, Pennsylvania’s Creatives on King, located at 104 E. King Street, York, PA.
Kuerner Farm, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Photograph © Andrew T. Smith of Visual Realia, LLC.
All works copyright Andrew T. Smith
Matrix Maintenance
Clay dries quickly — an obstacle the clay monoprint artist can not ignore.
Like any clay, the matrix that works are created on will gradually dry when exposed to air over time. In dry rooms, the matrix may start to have small cracks while working on a project. The problem compounds over time, with cracks increasing in both number and size. Because of this issue, clay monoprint artists need to take care of the matrix that they use.
Shown above is my primary clay matrix after pulling a print. The wooden frame is visible around the clay slab. Left sitting in a typical room, the clay would very quickly begin to dry, cracks would form, and eventually, the slab would shrink and pull away from the sides/frame.
When I am finished working with the matrix, I spray the clay surface with water and then cover the matrix with thin towels.
Depending upon how dry the slab and room are and how long one expects to be away, the towels are sprayed with water or placed onto the matrix already slightly wet. (Soaking wet, however, could muddy the surface clay.)
Finally, a plastic sheet is placed over the towels and matrix, and the edges are tucked under the wooden frame.
(For my smaller student boards, which are used less often, they are then slid into a large trash bag with the drawstring then pulled tight. They still need to be pulled out occasionally to add more moisture. This necessity has led me to gradually keep fewer student boards on hand — one reason I no longer lead larger workshops.)
A clay monoprint artist’s matrix gets lonely and must be visited often! If not, it will express disappointment with a new batch of cracks. On the other hand, give it regular attention, and you’ll find it sticking with you for years!
Art of the Clay Monoprint
Clay Monoprints are a relatively new art form, but they were formed from the skills of generations of potters and printmakers.
"Renaissance Town II" - Clay Monoprint, Acrylic Paint, Copper Mica, & Calcium Carbonate by Andrew T. Smith
One of my earliest recollections of doing homework was walking by my grandparent’s farm creek with my father to collect clay. We mixed it with hay from the farm and shaped it as an example of adobe (“mudbrick”) bricks. Even today, over half of the world’s citizens live in structures that utilize clay in their construction. We live with and in clay in many different forms.
When the brickmaker, potter, or clay printmaker works with clay, they touch and mold history and ages in the making. Over long stretches of time, rocks (often feldspar, the most abundant mineral group on our planet) are broken down chemically through natural solvents such as carbonic acid. Other clay minerals are formed through processes such as hydrothermal action, moving water under heat, and sometimes via volcanos.
The resting places for the clays are often near slow-moving water areas such as lakes and basins; various amounts of water combine with the clay materials, creating plasticity. When dried naturally or with the addition of heat to speed up the process, water levels decrease, and the clay hardens.
Clay has found essential uses over time, with its properties after drying coming in handy in creating ceramic vessels and both purposeful and decorative items. Human-created pottery shards have origins as far back as 14,000 BC. Ceramic objects found in the Czech Republic date to 29,000-25,000 BC.
Clay slabs were used as our first medium for writing, with a reed-based stylus inscribing the clay. Small balls of clay served as early ammunition. It continues to be used by some for the medicinal treatment of diarrhea.
Many now think of pottery and ceramic uses when hearing the word clay. We know these uses, as stated above, go back thousands of years. Decoration of these objects also started quite early, with paint being added as early as prehistoric times. Early Chinese porcelain included decorative carving, and texture and color were modified by adding sand or metal oxides. These techniques, as well as transferring a design to the pottery or using clay slips (essentially clay with a high moisture content, often with added colorants), continue in the much more recent art form called clay monoprints.
Mitch Lyons had a unique combination of backgrounds that was most likely necessary for introducing the art. His graphics degree and printmaking experience met with his art and ceramic degree.
He noticed that while working on decorating pottery works he created, he could transfer a design he made to the pottery via paper; a small amount of colored clay would stick to the paper and display the design. He rightly surmised that if he experimented with various papers, he might eventually come up with materials that would hold onto enough clay to do an artwork without further transferring it to a clay vessel.
The clay bonds to the paper via an electric charge present in the clay. As such, some materials will “hold on” to the charged clay more than others. While many traditional papers did not attract and hold the clay, Mr. Lyons found some newer man-made materials that did work, including reemay, used in filters, and Pellon, typically used as a fabric interface material.
The clay monoprint artist works on a slab of traditional high-temperature stoneware clay and adds or manipulates additional clay in various forms.
Initial Clay Slab or "Matrix"
The most common addition is through the use of (typically colored) clay slips. A slip is a mixture of clay with additional water, creating a texture between heavy cream and oatmeal in density. (Tile #6) Kaolin or China clay is used. These slips are mixed with universal colorants to create various hues and tones, as the artist wishes.
Clay Slip
Clay Slip with Added Colorant
The artist often starts by "painting" the entirety of the clay, known as the matrix, with one or more shades of colored slip.
From there, numerous techniques are used. A common approach is to paint abstractly on a sheet of blank newsprint with slip, allowing it to dry slightly. This paper can then be placed slip-side down on the matrix, with the clay slip transferred to the matrix via the use of a pastry roller.
Colored slip on Newsprint, Ready to be Transferred via a Pastry Roller
Variations can be used, such as painting specific, concrete shapes on the newsprint, and/or placing a stencil or textured item between the newsprint and matrix before rolling.
One can also paint directly on the matrix, although this can provide a bit too much water content, if the artist is not careful.
Other techniques include:
• placing shaped, pliable, colored clay on the matrix
• sprinkling chips of dried slip on the matrix
• carving into the clay to reveal lower levels of colored slip
• sprinkling common sidewalk chalk or pastels, shaved from a metal mesh strainer, over the matrix
If the artist is using characters like numbers or letters where direction is important, he or she must realize that printmaking reverses the image on the print, so some advanced planning use is necessary.
At times during the process, when water content seems high, or after a good bit of work, a blank sheet of newsprint is placed over the matrix and rolled lightly to reduce moisture and better bind the layers of clay.
When the artist is ready to print, the area for printing is masked with drywall tape, whose adhesive is only light, yet stay in place. The matrix and the receiving material (substrate) are misted lightly with a spray bottle, and the substrate is placed on the matrix.
The pastry roller is worked back and forth over the substrate, particularly working at the edges and corners for a clean transfer of clay. A finishing process occurs by rubbing the bowl of a large spoon over the print, carefully lifting an edge or corner on occasion to check for the quality of transfer.
The completed print is carefully pulled from the matrix and hung to air dry before spraying with a clear water sealant.
The matrix is ready for another print with yet more clay!
Interested in purchasing or commissioning a print? Contact Andy for more information.
Clay Monoprints
by Andrew T. Smith
City's Edge
Due to the relatively short history of clay monoprints as a medium, creating one always feels like an experiment. This is particularly true as I try to see how the prints interact with other mediums.
City’s Edge, ©2024 Andrew T. Smith. Clay Monoprint, Watercolor, Watercolor Pencil, and Acrylic
“City’s Edge”
16” x 20”
Clay Monoprint, Watercolor, Watercolor Pencil, and Acrylic
Andrew Smith / Visual Realia Studio
Due to the relatively short history of clay monoprints as a medium, creating one always feels like an experiment. This is particularly true as I try to see how the prints interact with other mediums.
Clay slip without pigment is an off-white, somewhere between grey and white. Unfortunately, one limitation of clay monoprints is the difficulty in getting a true white or a deep, rich black. I set out to use both via acrylic paints in this work.
To offset the dark city, nature speaks up colorfully in the foreground.
In both instances, the shapes and colors were present in the print, but I sought to emphasize what the monoprint brought. The use of watercolors and watercolor pencils helped with enhancing color. The monoprint, acrylic, and watercolors each bring subtle textural differences, as well.
Most monoprint images I share here are “cropped” to show only what will be visible once framed. In the photo immediately above, I thought it would be instructive to show the entire surface of the print before framing. The edges with less color can be caused by the wooden matrix (clay slab) frame or the taped edge where I intended to end the print. These areas will be trimmed or hidden by the frame.
Towns in Clay
Post-impressionistic towns are rising from my matrix.
Renaissance Town II, ©2023 Andrew T. Smith. Clay monoprint, acrylic, copper mica, and calcium carbonate.
As part of the "unentitled" exhibit, I worked along with both artists Ophelia Chambliss and Debbie Toluba to create multimedia works that utilized my clay monoprints along with their acrylic skills.
I've been using acrylics in my own works more often, as well. After pulling the clay monoprint, I've added clay slip and acrylic paint; the coverage of the two is quite different, as is the texture, adding some subtle but interesting variety.
I've always liked buildings and towns expressed with a simple, post-impressionistic feel, and I’ve been working with that concept in mind with these works.
In Renaissance Town I, shown below, the town was built around elements remaining on the clay slab (matrix) from previous prints, such as the green triangle, bottom center. The buildings are merely suggested in structure.
After pulling that print, additional work and details were added to the remaining imagery on the matrix, and calcium carbonate was utilized for the white stars. After pulling Renaissance Town II, shown at the top of the page, some acrylic paint was added, such as window detail. The buildings, while abstract, are more fully realized than in the first print.
View from the Plaza: Renaissance Town I, ©2023 Andrew T. Smith, Clay Monoprint & Calcium Carbonate
Finally, more concrete structural figures are used in Urban Moon, with acrylic paint used for the loose building edges and windows. The moon is comprised of the print, clay slip, and acrylic paint.
Urban Moon, ©2023 Andrew T. Smith, Clay Monoprint, Slip, Acrylic, & Mica.
Interested in seeing more of my prints online? Follow my personal or Visual Realia Facebook pages.
Visual Realia in the "unentitled" Exhibit at Marketview Arts
Andrew Smith of Visual Realia is one of seven artists who created collaborative works on the theme of “unentitled” for this new exhibit in York, Pennsylvania.
The "unentitled" artists discuss the exhibit setup.
Early during the summer of 2022, several members of the Collective Rogue Arts, an informal group of area creatives, artists, and entrepreneurs, began discussing an exhibit of works that were collaborations between two or more artists.
Artists typically join an exhibit with lots of specifics: location, dates, times, exhibit themes, mediums, etc., but in this case, the task was designed from the opposite direction.
Seven of us started down the path without a confirmed exhibit location and with only the concept of working on these joint works. During initial meetings, we determined the exhibit theme, randomly selected initial collaborative partners, and a common color (copper) to use on individual 12" x 12" tiles that each of us would create to work as a whole as a group piece.
Art is a powerful and valuable tool for looking at social issues, and this exhibit's artists chose to discuss challenges around entitlement via their unique mediums and techniques. The result is shared with you in the Marketview Arts gallery space,
Visitors will also see individual sample works from each contributor. We hope you join Reagan Bitler, Ophelia Chambliss, Jeannine Dabb, Kristin Kest, Nicole Osborne, Debbie Toluba, and me in considering our continuing role in issues revolving around the challenges for the unentitled.
unentitled
Marketview Arts
37 W Philadelphia St., York, PA
Opening Reception:
Saturday, August 19th, 2023
5:00 - 7:00 PM
Exhibit:
August 19th - October 21st, 2023