Paperworks

Paperworks are constructions made from layers of handmade paper, usually for wall hanging.  They include my current series of Watermarks – exploring the way the light shows through the layers like sunlight through leaves.

Element is made from heavy handmade cotton-rag paper with fine handmade (Khadi) layers on top, with the text (from a poem by Adrienne Rich) lettered in ink with a wooden peg pen.

Signed one-off.  70cm high x 50cm wide.  For sale £300 framed.

There goes the river is another Watermark; here Alice Oswald’s beautiful text (from her long poem Dart) is set along a watercolour line mapping the River Dart with a torn paper dart echoing the shape.

Signed one-off. 70cm high x 50cm wide.  For sale £350 framed.

In Lucky Weather the text of a poem by Frances Bingham forms a bridge between two handdrawn newspaper front pages, one from 31st May 1940 reporting the Evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from the beaches of Dunkirk 70 years ago, and one from December 2009 reporting on soldiers killed in Afghanistan, snowy weather and devastating cash cuts for universities; the poem reveals some startling and unexpected connections; the work explores these layers of reference.

Signed one-off. 60cm high x 50cm wide. Not for sale.

Ice river is a paper construction that I made during the snowy weather.  It’s made from layers of handmade papers with coloured PVA, and watercolours.  The text (by Joni Mitchell) is scratched and painted on to the icy river line.

Signed one-off. 70cm wide x 40cm high. For sale £300.

This is a detail from Watermark – Light through, with text by Virginia Woolf. It’s made from layers of handmade papers with the text brushed on in watercolours.

Signed one-off. 70cm high x 50cm wide.  This work will be in my next exhibition.

Tree, river, river, tree is made from the four quarters torn from one sheet of handmade paper, with the image of the winter tree mirrored in shifting manifestations explored by the text.

Signed one-off. For sale £300. Now sold.

Hieroglyphs sets a text from Valentine Ackland’s poem Journey from Winter on strips of handmade cotton-rag paper that give some reference to the signposts missing from the text. It’s lettered in charcoal and chalk.

Signed one-off; 57cm x 84cm; for sale £250, or £300 framed in beech.

Earthlight on the moon is a paper construction which sets two texts, one by Dorothy Wordsworth (Silver How) and one by Geoffrey Grigson (A faint light on darkness); the texts are lettered with a driftwood pen on layers of handmade paper.

Signed one-off; 70cm x 50cm; for sale £350 unframed or £400 framed in beech.

The light is there – look – look into all that is illuminated by the light.

This glorious text by Margaret Tait is lettered in vivid azure ink on layers of handmade paper.

Signed one-off; 70cm x 50cm; for sale £300 framed in beech.

Riverlight

I’ve been working on a new group of paperworks called Riverlight; I’ll be showing some of them in detail in my regular Work in Focus posts and I’ll add some here, too. Some of them are paintings in watercolour and acrylics on handmade paper with lettering in ink and watercolour, like  Waters all fused silver

The text is by Coleridge, evoking the moonlit river.

Signed one-off, 42cm x 30cm, for sale £100 unframed or £130 framed in beech

A summer night on the river is the title of a work by Delius, with a shining serenity.

Signed one-off, 42cm x 30cm, for sale £100 unframed or £130 framed.

A vessel burning blue lights is a homage to Turner’s painting with a ravishing title – in a very un-Turnerlike technique.

Signed one-off, 42cm x 30cm, for sale £100 unframed, £130 framed. Now sold.

Sure on this shining night continues the ‘river at night’ theme with a seductive phrase from Samuel Barber. This is one of a group of smaller works.

Signed one-off, 30cm x 21cm unmounted, or mounted on handmade paper 42cm x 30cm. £80 unframed, or £110 framed in beech.

River-sky sets Jeremy Hooker’s beautiful text on the sunlit river.

Signed one-off, 30cm x 21cm (handmade paper mount 42cm x 30cm), for sale unframed £80 or £110 framed in beech.

To capture the light sets Margaret Tait’s sparkling text on a handmade paper with the texture of a woven net.

Signed one-off, 30cm x 21cm, for sale £80 unframed, or £110 framed.

Other works in the Riverlight series have floating scraps of handmade paper on a painted canvas frame:

watermark 1 sets a watercolour brushwork flourish on a painted canvas ground.

Signed one-off 20cm x 20cm, for sale £80. Now sold.

In river-water-light scraps of handmade paper with watercolour marks float on  a painted canvas frame.

Signed one-off, 60cm x 30cm, for sale £120

water-colour-river-light is a development of the theme, with handmade paper scraps on a painted canvas river.

Signed one-off, 80cm x 30cm, for sale £150

And some are wordless paper constructions following the river-light:

sky-water is constructed with layers of painted handmade paper.

Signed one-off, 42cm x 30cm, £90 unframed, £120 framed

river-light-air combines layers of painted handmade paper

Signed one-off, 30cm x 42cm, for sale £90 or £120 framed

Floating river light is a construction combining handmade paper with a reclaimed box-frame which lifts the floating scrap.

Signed one-off, 47cm x 37cm, for sale £150 now sold.

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To buy or enquire about any work, please leave me a comment in the box below, or click on contact details.

All photos copyright Liz Mathews.

Permission is needed for any use of these images.