We had a very successful Easter weekend demonstration by Rosie Lomberg, a Cheltenham artist who specialises in the combinations of mono printing and painting. Rosie’s work takes inspiration from a love of wild flowers, seed-heads and our beautiful overgrown countryside. With each season highlighting a new beauty which she interprets with layers of acrylic paint on board. Although her favourite seasons seem to be the colder ones!
Working on small sections at speed, has been her latest challenge who has a young daughter. So before the demonstration began, Rosie had pre prepared a board with several sections of work at different stages. Also available to view were her small ’tiles’ of wood showing each stage of her process which were handed round.
Being an art student and Cheltenham’s Pittville campus Rosie soon realised that although printing was something she took an interest in, it became apparent that when leaving college the facilities of a printing presses would not be available. So working on a budget she developed her own method of printing using discarded cellophane. Her work on MDF, originally from discarded sections from her fathers building scraps, Rosie primes the background using several layers of gesso and then yellow ochre. The use of MDF was chosen as it was originally readily available and that it lended itself to be wood based and more natural than canvas.
Using the cellophane, a wet layer of acrylic paint (usually a dark colour) is applied and then using the wooden end of a paintbrush a design is drawn into the paint, removing the excess from the end of the handle. This becomes a negative image and is transferred onto the wood as a mono print. Any areas that are not wanted are then removed from the wood using the bristles of the brush and water. Left to dry Rosie keeps adding the main imagery before the second stage. This involves ‘splodging’ the areas around the print using ultramarine, bright red and copper tones. These are added at random with darker sections round certain areas to ‘ping out’ the design. In the final stage, the design is built up in gradual layers using a pale colour washes which allow the blues, reds and copper tones to show through at different tonal layers. if Rosie finds something she feels isn’t working, she will take a photo on her phone which helps take a step back from the work and helps reassess the balance of a piece. Sometimes this last layer can take up to three coats in different areas for the painting to ‘balance’.
Rosie is a Cheltenham artist who is involved in Cheltenham Opens Studios (8th – 16th June 2019) as well as having an Etsy and Folksy shops online and selling locally via commissions. She also has cards and prints available to purchase which she brought to the demonstration.
For more information you can find it on her website at https://rosielomberg.webs.com/where-to-find-my-work