Sara Norquay

Impasse Harlequin

2012-01-13T15:18:00.001-07:00

Santa Barbara visit

2011-11-14T21:09:00.000-07:00

small wood block

9 small wood blocks printed over each other

I'm not a calligrapher, however . . .

2011-08-18T19:16:00.008-06:00

This watercolour is one of the pieces I'm submitting to the Edmonton Calligraphic Society's up-coming exhibition. The poem was written by R. S. Thomas, a Welsh poet once nominated for the Nobel Prize.

Woodcut Monoprints

2011-03-16T20:50:00.000-06:00

Last weekend I had the pleasure of making woodcut monoprints under the tutelage of printartist Pamela Drix at the Rusty Barn in Santa Barbara, California. I cut and printed 4 plates (8 x 10 inch Shina wood). I learned a lot and will continue to print them to explore what else they have to say.

Letterpress print with type

2011-02-28T09:09:00.000-07:00

The image was cut from two lino blocks based on a photo I took of my grandmother in the 1970's. I still miss her.

Woodcut Print #2

2011-02-21T14:33:00.001-07:00

This what one of the blocks looks like after being cut for the printing of the 6th layer. There are still areas that haven't been printed but are ready in any case.

This is the print with 5 layers printed.

This is the print after 6 printings

This is the print after the 7th layer has been printed. I hope there will be one more printing and then the print will be done. Stay tuned.

New photos of the Secret Garden Book

2010-12-06T17:42:00.001-07:00

This book is made of felt. The background was wet felted and the front surface was needle felted. It was designed to stand on its wooden dowels.

Learning woodcut print techniques

2010-11-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

This series of photos show the stages of a large (18 x 24 inches) woodcut print I am making. So far I have printed 8 colours on two plates, in 6 passes through the press. I expect to print at least two more colours. The photos below show both plates as they were cut and printed, as well as the print as it now stands.

This is the collage image I'm working from, blown up and printed on the computer printer for transferring the image onto the wood. I started printing 10 sheets of paper knowing that there will be mistakes. My edition is currently at 8 but might be as small as 6. We'll see.

This shows the first plate after it has been printed with the first colour of pale yellow. This same plate, without further cutting, was printed again with a degradez colour of pale green to pale brown.

This shows the second plate after it was printed with the third colour (light red).

This shows the second plate after it was printed with the fourth and fifth colours (dark red and light green).

This shows the second plate after it was printed with the sixth and seventh colours (dark blue and medium green)

This shows the print after it was printed 5 times (7 colours).

This shows the print as it stands now after being printed 6 times. The 8th colour is cream.

I accidently turned the first plate the wrong way and printed it upside down on my last sheet of paper. However, this mistake has given me some valuable information about what the bright shapes would look like if they were partially printed over. I have two more printings planned but I might add one more to alter the bright shapes a bit.

The Secret Garden Felted Book

2010-10-07T20:48:00.001-06:00

The Whole Story

I finally finished my felt book for the CBBAG exhibition which can be seen at the Rutherford Library at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. The photos above don't show it standing on its wooden dowels (spines), but when standing, it appears as a gentle accordion structure.

Winter Night

Winter Into Spring

Spring Into Summer

Summer Into Fall

Fall Into Winter

Exhibition of Mouffetard's Week: An Unfamiliar Garden

2010-09-12T06:54:00.000-06:00

David Townsend and I are finally sharing our project by publishing a run of 25 hand-bound commercially printed postcard book and having an exhibition in Toronto. The reception was very well attended and 10 books were sold. Please contact me if you wish to purchase a book ($65). They are going fast. The exhibit will be at the Sage Cafe, 166 McCaul St. in Toronto, until September 30th and I recommend having lunch there as the food is wonderful. For more information click on the Mouffetard's Week link on the website link panel of this blog.

Felted Scarves

2010-08-03T20:37:00.000-06:00

These scarves are fun and easy to make. And aren't they beautiful?

The above two scarves were made by me, the next two by friends.

Felting is Good For You - edition 2010

2010-08-03T20:28:00.001-06:00

Lyn taught us how to make felted flowers. Mine is a bit wild.

I decided to make a shrug - part shirt, part shawl. This photo shows some of the surface design laid out on the roving before being felted.

Here the shrug has been felted enough to hold the surface design and the three felted pieces together. Serious shrinkage hasn't started yet.

Here is the shrug in its final form. You can see the shibori puckers, the armhole and how the surface designs have shrunk into the fiber.

Here I am wearing the shrug before I took the shibori out.

Printing in Paris

2010-06-08T11:42:00.001-06:00

I arrived in Paris on May 31st and have been going to the Atelier Aux Lilas almost every day since. I taught a Solarplate workshop on the weekend. There was lots of sun on Saturday and hardly any on Sunday but I think both days went well anyway, even though they were different. I certainly learned a lot and everyone was very kind and enthusiastic. I learned some new vocabulary in French and everyone was tolerant of my mistakes. Many people spoke English quite well. I had a great time.

Mouffetard's Week: An Unfamiliar Garden

2010-01-15T17:20:00.000-07:00

Mouffetard's Week has finally been published as a postcard book: hand-bound in a folder type binding with two tiny booklets of introduction and commentary. It retails for $65. Please contact me if you want a copy.

It's a story about Mouffetard who discovers some old letters that change his life. It was written by myself and David Townsend as a kind of creative game, a collaborative creative adventure. The story is 20 sentences long and was written without advance discussion of storyline or any later revision. Some sentences were changed slightly along the way but not once another sentence had been given. Each artist wrote ten lines alternating one sentence at a time. Each of us then interpreted the text in our own way using ink, watercolour, gouache, collaged papers and mixed media.

You can see more details at this URL: http://dtownsendsnnorquay.blogspot.com/or by clicking on the Mouffetard's Week web link on the right.

Carol's Grandchildren

2009-11-09T17:36:00.001-07:00

Using Solarplates on a letter press

2009-10-24T13:19:00.000-06:00

This project is one page of a calendar made by members of SNAP (Society of Northern Alberta Printartists) as a fundraiser to be sold at their annual Holiday print sale at the end of November. I was asked to do something for the month of May. My two-colour image is made with two relief plates. The first 2 plates I made were too big and had too many open white spaces. So I redesigned the plates slightly and made them smaller. Then I glued (using water based rubber cement) a piece of vinyl magnet the same size as the plate on to a slightly larger block of wood. I used spray adhesive to give added strength to keep the plate from slipping off the block. The spray adhesive isn't permanent so allows removal of the plates in order to use the block another time. The registration was perfect, though perhaps this was beginner's luck. The only adjustments I needed to make on the press were to raise the block to make it type high using card and paper and to pad the drum where the plate was to give it added pressure.

Looking Down: Mind Maps from the Subconscious

2009-09-29T20:27:00.001-06:00

These large image etchings were inspired by traditional Australian aboriginal paintings that depict maps of their local physical and natural environment. My maps, however, do not indicate actual physical places, but rather subconscious places passed through momentarily as I put the ink on the plate.

The etchings are printed from photopolymer plates made by painting etching ink directly onto the plates, exposing them to the sun (UV rays), and then, after removing the ink, washing them in water to obtain the etch.

Dwellings

Coming and Going

The Other Side

Felting is Good For You

2009-07-17T12:31:00.000-06:00

If you are a felter, you don't need to go to the gym. It's a pretty good workout if you do it by hand (and arms, legs, back, and even feet.) I spent 12 hours a day in the studio and came home with a felted chiffon scarf, a stand alone felt book, and a doll only a mother could love. It was a memorable week in my life. I learned a great deal, and met some wonderful people.

Thanks to Carolyn

2009-07-17T08:46:00.001-06:00

I went to Red Deer College for two weeks at the beginning of July. This week I took a drawing class which featured a different model each day and no interruptions or unwanted comments. The music was good and the 6 to 9 hours a day of drawing flew by.

Shoe Mandalas

2009-04-10T21:58:00.000-06:00

Sun Shoes - a three color multiple drop etching - approx.5"x 5"

Latest Print

2009-02-22T18:02:00.000-07:00

Summer Reading - an etching approx. 11 X 17 inches

Large Etchings

2008-07-31T23:34:00.000-06:00

These etchings were made by painting black etching ink onto a Solarplate, exposing it to the sun, and then cleaning the ink off before etching the plate in water.

Three Figures

Nature Encroaches

Waiting By The River

New Prints

2008-06-24T11:19:00.001-06:00

The Chair

My Hands Are Foolish

These two monotypes were made in 2006 but I have just taken another look at them and decided to frame them.

Summer Dream

This is my second woodcut. I enjoyed making it so much I plan to make more.

A Book of Unconjugated Verbs

2008-06-11T22:08:00.000-06:00

These are pages from an alphabet book I made for this year's Art From Scrap fundraising exhibition to support their educational environmental programs. It is a kind of Do-Si-Do book structure with the "encouraging" verbs going one way and the "discouraging" verbs starting from the back and going forwards. The verbs are stamped, stencilled and painted onto fabric samples from AFS. I used them exactly as I got them without trimming them. The fabric was sewn into accordion pages that I fused together with a light interfacing.

Westmont Shoe Show

2008-05-26T15:50:00.000-06:00

Contemplation

In response to a call for entries at Westmont College, I made three etching plates from drawings I did when I taught art. I used to draw when the kids drew, and this was an assignment I gave the 8th graders when we did our self-portrait unit. I have since printed them with chine colle paper added, and I plan to print them in color, turning the plates to create "double drop" prints.

Felt Books

2008-04-02T16:22:00.000-06:00

These are the first and last pages of a little felt book called "Back 4 7." It was made during and after a visit to my family for seven days in 2007. Each open page illustrates a highlight or two from the day. In a pocket on the back cover of the book is a paper version with a daily written account of the week.

Books from recycled material

2008-03-28T19:16:00.001-06:00

"Night Garden" is made from rejected monotype prints cut and sewn together into a long accordion structure bound with an original binding made so that each page of this fat book can be opened to lie flat.

"Send Word" tells a story through parts of twelve letters written from one friend to another. It is an altered book. The pages are collaged with the inside of business envelopes saved for many years in case I should one day be able to use them. Finally that day has come. The letters are also written on old envelopes acquired from Art From Scrap. I didn't have to buy any material for this book. Everything was found at home.

The partial correspondence, written over many years from one friend to another is presented as in a calendar, starting with January and ending in December. I hope the viewer can imagine the whole story from the few bits of information the letters reveal.

"Artist Books Made Here"

2008-03-28T18:58:00.001-06:00

This book is called "Above, Below, Between, Beside." I have been interested for a while in what is "between the lines," in the "negative space" and the silence that holds sound. The relief blocks were designed to leave the carving marks evident in the center of each block. The shapes are positioned around the edges. It was printed on Masa paper in graphite colored block ink. There is a red embroidery thread sewn into the folds. They have little labeled tags on the ends so the book can be opened and closed easily without tearing.

This is a little book called "Standoff." I made 4 copies. The images were cut out of hand painted papers and glued onto an accordion book structure.

This book is called "A Graphic Novel About Sand." It depicts a lifetime as if it were a single day. It is printed from a relief block onto one piece of paper. Once the ink dried, I cut and folded it into a book.

This book is called "Getting Together" and is about not having enough time to prepare for a special event. It was made from one relief block, then cut and folded into it's final structure. I made 7 copies of this book.

Collaboration

2008-03-28T18:50:00.001-06:00

This is my part in a collaboration between three people for an Art From Scrap exhibition called "Three."

Here you can see all nine pieces. I humorously called it a niptych. The idea was for the viewer to be able to rearrange the canvasses on the wall; orienting them to each other in a variety of ways and even changing the overall shape of the piece. We worked blind, not knowing what the other two artists were doing. After seeing our work together for the first time we added elements to unify it. For example, I added color and shapes from S.C.'s work and used words from S.W.'s Haiku poem. Watching people move it around during the opening reception was fun.

"A Presence in the Room"

2007-03-24T21:20:00.000-06:00

Some prints from an exhibition of monotypes that I had in October 06.

Inner Light

Theft

Why Not?

Inner Light 2

Evidence of Creative Activity

2007-03-23T21:49:00.000-06:00

The picture above is a page from a collaborative book project I have been working on called Mouffetard's Week. The project was started as a kind of experiment with DT. I wrote the first sentence and he wrote the second, and we alternated until we had 20 sentences in all. We both illustrated the text in our own ways, so we have two books with almost identical texts and completely different illustrations. We hope to publish both books together with some writing about the process.