Category: Hybrid Printmaking

#1606 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By Juliet CornellIn art, Hybrid Printmaking1 Comment

Last night some freshly composed witches songs were out, out for the first time on the edge of Dartmoor.

A friend, Sian Jamison, has, inspired by a book, written a collection of music inspired by stories of Welsh witches. Inspired by her music I have started to paint contemporary images of women who live amongst us and who would in previous times have been considered ‘other’. Non-conformist, clever, opinionated, feminists. Women who change, support, and shape their communites without the entitlement or bravado of the masculine style of community engagement. My witches, unlike Sian’s are not quite ready to be out,out. Since starting this project I realise that you cannot rush a contemporary witch. She or they will take their own sweet time to emege from the music.

I am not a natural figure painter but for the last couple of years I have painted storms as people, Some benign and some absolutely with malign intent.Swimmers of all shapes and sizes and mermaids with more on their minds than attracting or engaging the matelots gaze or lascivious thoughts.Now I am reimagining witches. Not particularly, or at all as mythical or historical figures, and not as they are traditionally portrayed. My witches don’t wear black, my mermaids can be fierce, my storm bringers are unpredictable. They live the same lives as anyone else in the first half of the 21st century. Three of the witch pictures are ready to appear in the blog. I believe they are finished but until this project is complete I can never be sure.

Bog Witch. You can’t burn a Bog Witch.

Bella Fawr with little Betty.

Shape Shifting witches. Cat to woman/woman to cat.

In part it is easier to reimagine Welsh witches because unlike other places Wales did not persecute witches. They were seen as a benign and essential part of the community. Only causing trouble if provoked or disrespected.

My witches live amongst us, doing the school run, shopping in supermarkets, going on nights out.

They will have been amongst us last night on the edge of the moor.

#1603 theoldmortuary ponders

On By Juliet CornellIn Hybrid Printmaking, pondering, Serendipity1 Comment

I have been pondering the meaning of community today. I am not sure I could make a list of the communities I am involved in. Someone would be certain to point out one I had forgotten.

The artist community in real life and on line is an easy one to identify, although this year I have skipped joining in with Inktober. An informal group that responds to daily prompts to draw, paint and sketch using ink.

During October I am certainly using inks but not responding to someone elses prompting. Yesterday I realised that this October , for me,has become Pinktober. For an entirely random reason.

While I was in France I managed to buy a bright pink Bic fine tip pen. Traditionally watercolour paintings can be enhanced with pen and ink. Usually but not always black. I prefer Sepia but a set of five bright colours really set me thinking and so two pictures this week have been embellished with pink and I love it.

Not that I can belatedly join the 2026 Inktober community as none of their prompts could inspire a seascape or a random collection of three mussel shells, a cracked pebble and an Oyster shell.

Maybe I could talk my way onto 28 th October using ‘Trophy’ as these shells were happy trophies brought home by a grandchild. Or indeed October 31st ‘Flex’ because to paint the collection of shells I flexed a little to turn over the mussels to reveal their beautiful blue sides and the pebble to show the crack. I also flexed my mind a little bit to overlay the watercolour painting with the original photograph of the collection from the beach. The serendipity of doing this works brilliantly in this instance . Giving the hybrid print of this painting more abstraction and artistic heft. So flex on the 31st of October this one will be.

Another of my communities will provide ‘Trophy’ on the 28th of October. One of my local community WhatsApp groups advertised free Quince, generously left for anyone to collect.

I love quince and these are really quite a trophy. They will be my fruity muses sometime soon and after a painting is done they will be cooked to make Quince syrup and Membillo a gorgeous rose coloured jelly to eat with cheese and ham throughout the winter. The Quince may well join the Inktober community. Better late than never. They will also be enhanced by pink ink. In my own solitary community ‘ Pinktober’ of just me and my pink Bic

#1527 theoldmortuary ponders

On By Juliet CornellIn Hybrid Printmaking, Serendipity1 Comment

Tell us about your morning routine.

or yesterday mornings routine.

In fact yesterdays morning routine was a monthly routine. Once a month a group of artists get together to chew the fat , plan exhibitions and share tips. We are encouraged to be creative at the same time. Multi tasking, with cake eating and coffee drinking is also integral to our decisions.

I was painting a water-colour layer to enhance a photograph that was taken two days earlier after a really lovely swim in Firestone Bay.

Water colours* combined with a photograph are how I produce my Hybrid prints. The watercolour is how I add emotion, atmosphere and vibrancy to the experience of being there in that specific moment. I also use watercolour to add the complexities of the weather and temperature of that moment.

*I mostly use a watercolour layer but the additional layer can be a monoprint,another photograph, textiles anything that can create the essence of what I am striving to capture.

The photograph this watercolour needed to enhance was good enough in its own way.

But it was bleak and chilly as is entirely normal for 5pm in mid-October. The swim one hour earlier had been unseasonably warm. We had all stayed in longer than you might expect for October. The whole experience felt like a warm summer evening, lots of chatter, a good bit of exercise.The harsh reality of the landscape felt softer and more vivid than it really was.

I trace the point where I will register the two images and then forget all about the photograph. Painting entitely from memory/imagination the sensation of the moment. Everything flows from the register point. In this case it is also the vanishing point but that is accidental

Then I just have to photograph the water colour and stick the two* images together.

*Sometimes I create three or four images to stick together. Nothing is guaranteed, the whole project can be a disaster or turn out nothing like as well as I had hoped. This one came out just as I had hoped.

The Watercolours are not wasted. I can work into them later with pen and ink.

The reason I am sharing the somewhat ponderous technique I am evolving was an on-line conversation I had yesterday with a schoolfriend.

Funny how a chat with a lovely man that I have known since we were both 11 made me distill my thoughts.

Even funnier is the realisation that only came from that conversation.

At no point in my medical imaging life did anyone accuse me of not being a ‘real’ radiographer or not giving them a ‘real’ diagnosis because I was using digital skills.

Plenty of people have exactly that opinion of using digital skills to produce art…

Plenty of people are incorrect.

The finished article.

3pm The Swim zone.

And because digital can change a mood.

5pm An early evening dog walk. Reflecting on an unexpectedly lovely swim.

#1525 theoldmortuary ponders

On By Juliet CornellIn art, Hybrid Printmaking1 Comment

I went swimming with some neighbours about an hour before I took the photo that I based this image on. It was a memorable swim because the water was crystal clear with gentle waves and still warm enough, for staying in longer to swim and chat. 17.2- 17.9 according to satellite measurements. The air temperature was about 12.3, 5 degrees lower, which made changing a little chillier than we have become used to. The weather station is not too far, as the seagull flies, from where we swim. So I am able to get my science facts to sit alongside my experiential reactions.

Yesterday was the first time since early May that I had to hunt out a pair of socks to go for a dog walk after my swim. I may also have been feeling cooler because, after the domestic admin of the day I had been working on the painted layer of one of my hybrid images. Trying to represent the different energies of drinking mint tea in the garden of a bookshop. Located in the Gulf of Morbihan, 200 miles south of Plymouth 10 days ago.

We had anticipated cooler days but Brittany was experiencing a glorious Indian Summer which had us hunting out shady spots.

How will we remember the glorious, extended summer of 2026?

#1524 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By Juliet CornellIn Hybrid Printmaking1 Comment

What’s the most underrated life skill?

I am uncertain if being kind is the most underated life skill, or the most easily forgotten. Many people view it as a weakness or something that need not apply to them. Others think it is a selective skill used sparingly at times and then gushingly like an incontinent water main. I find this sort of person somewhat awkward to interact with.

That being said I do possess some unkind bones in my body , everyone needs just a few for protection or good comedic moments. But a whole skeleton of them is not a good thing in my opinion.

People with full skeletons of unkind bones see kindness as a weakness. I think of it as a bit of a superpower. Kindness brings warmth into most situations.

Humans are funny old things we tend to remember the bad stuff or the sad stuff: the unkind words and deeds much more readily for some reason. Which is why kindness is just so important, used effectively it can make the sad and bad stuff just a little bit more tolerable and balance, where possible its nemesis, unkindness.

#1523 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By Juliet CornellIn art, Hybrid PrintmakingLeave a comment

I’ve been playing around a bit, with colour temperatures for prints created using photographs and digital manipulation as my practice place. This cool hued image above represents the early morning of a day that turned out to be the most delicious Indian Summer day in early October. But I stood in the exact same place searching for a breeze in the midst of the summer heatwaves. Looking at the actual photographs there is not a huge amount of difference but by changing the colour of a future print version I can get the essence of oppressive heat in an open space.

Similarly on a very hot day on our recent trip to Brittany. We sought refuge in a bookshop with a cafe.

This is what we got, but what we hoped for was more like the image below.

But sometimes there is no escaping extreme heat. And as October wends its ponderous way towards November I will be dreaming of those over-hot moments soon enough.

#1281 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Art for sale, Hybrid Printmaking, Scrag End of Summer, SerendipityLeave a comment

Does bright yellow signify the beginning of the ‘Scrag end of Summer’.

We have had a most unusual summer, 5 heatwaves have rendered our back yard almost unusable because of  excessive heat. Evenings being the only time we could comfortably sit out, or tinker with our plants.

Nearly a week since the last heatwave left the area, the later part of sitting in the yard last evening required rugs.

So heatwaves apart, we are now in an entirely normal late summer pattern. Mentally we extend summer into the whole of September. Optimistic that Autumn will only descend on the 1st of October with a crescendo of pumpkins.

A very interesting question in light of the 5 heatwaves + 1 more scheduled for September, is what will the 2026 Pumpkin season look like? 1st World Problems.

Painting pumpkins is one of my favourite fruit and Vegetable art moments.

Which leads me somewhat circuitously to the the art drama of my past week. Two hybrid prints featuring the moon were sent off for a test print. One came back looking  good the other did not.  So back to the drawing board in the literal and actual sense.

For my image I wanted the moon to look soft and mythical, exactly like cream cheese.

The Moon is made of green cheese” is a statement referring to a fanciful belief that the Moon is composed of cheese. In its original formulation as a proverb and metaphor for credulity with roots in fable, this refers to the perception of a simpleton who sees a reflection of the Moon in water and mistakes it for a round cheese wheel. It is widespread as a folkloric motif among many of the world’s cultures, and the notion has also found its way into children’s folklore and modern popular culture.


Queso fresco (“fresh cheese”), a green cheese, with typical white, round appearance resembling a full moon.
The phrase “green cheese” in the common version of this proverb (sometimes “cream cheese” is used),[1] may refer to a young, unripe cheese[2][3][4][5] or to cheese with a greenish tint.[6]

My first attempt , which I was entirely happy with until the test print, did in fact look very much like a green and slightly misshapen cheese. I wanted gentle swirls of Philadelphia.

Cream Cheese Moon 🎬2

Cream Cheese moon, created by swirling wet Posca pens with my finger has successfully been inserted into my original image and the nasty green moon banished. Another first world problem to ponder on a Sunday evening in a yard which is, for the first time this summer pleasantly warm rather than roasting.

Crossing the Bar 2 ©theoldmortuary

#1278 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Firestone Bay, Hybrid Printmaking, SerendipityLeave a comment
Partial Eclipse 2026, work in progress.© theoldmortuary

It is just over a week since I bobbed during the partial eclipse with 9 other bobbers. At the time the experience was both peculiar and beautiful.  Peculiar because we swam for virtually the whole of the eclipse experience. Quite often with special Eclipse glasses which gave us a completely safe experience to view the eclipse in real time, but our vision  was limited to black and red vision of the black moon obscuring most of an orange sun . While our bodies were experiencing the sensations of the sea and our ears were hearing the happiness and exclamations of a bay, full of happy swimmers.

When we didn’t have the glasses on we were experiencing ever changing highly saturated colours that slowly darkened and changed as the moon crossed the sun. One of my Eclipse glasses visions was of sparks of light like golden diamond twinkles firing off the perimeter of the sun. I think caused by drops of sea water on my eyelashes or on the plastic lens of the eclipse glasses.

I knew I wanted to create an image of the experience, but which one?

Until I decided to throw caution to the wind and put all my recollections into one image. Not as mad as you might think for someone who worked in medical imaging. For example a CT scan image is made of many amalgamated pictures taken from lots of different angles at slightly different times.

My hybrid printmaking technique with photography and painted or mono printed images uses exactly that technique, modified a little.

Yesterday I had to get a bit of a wiggle on to get this image off to a printer for a test run Giclee print. It is still not the finished article but I will need to see how a print looks.

So that’s where the image is currently but what about my personal recollection?

Really one of the loveliest things I have done in a really familiar home environment. I still haven’t quite found the words to describe the experience. But I have found the many layers of a half decent picture.

#1263 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Hybrid Printmaking, Photographs, Plymouth, Plymouth Sound, Serendipity, Stonehouse, WordsLeave a comment

Does every picture tell a story?

I think most do.

This one tells of the late summer clear up. All family guests have moved on to different holiday destinations and our home has eased back from peak occupation. The crocs belonging to three small girls are gathered in a bucket by the back door while the girls themselves are away on different holiday adventures.

Using a similar colour scheme I am trying to tell the story of a set of swimming steps that are much quieter this week now the heatwave has moved on.

I am at heart a story teller either with words or pictures.

A regular blog reader, who is familiar with these steps, said yesterday that I had made them look very posh. That was not the intention, but I agree. They may have been posh once upon a time but shabby shic is a better description now. Most of the time they are entirely tolerable and are regularly washed by incoming very high tides.

At night they can be a gathering place for  smokers of weed and men who like to do a wee. Not so posh then. Not so great as a swim destination either. Not  so great a picture.

But I don’t need to tell that story about these steps.

Years ago a little pair of discarded crocs by the back door of the actual Old Mortuary used to break my heart.   A small person and her family  had left us to live abroad. That would not have made a great story or a great picture.

3 pairs of crocs in a bucket is a much better story.

However in the interests of story telling I also wanted to show the earlier set of steps at the peak of the August heatwave. I am not interested in the crowds of people who used these steps recently just the steps as a metaphor for extreme atmospheric and radiated heat. Just too much heat.

The heat blistered out of the rocks at night. And the sea languidly lapping the steps, warmer than we have ever known. Not quite cooling enough perhaps. Oleaginous even.

A different colour scheme. A completely different story.

#1346 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photography, art, Footling About, Hybrid Printmaking, learning, Meddled Photography X Watercolour, Medical imaging, Serendipity1 Comment

Which outdated technology do you miss the most, and why?

As a lifelong image maker the outdated technology I miss the most is the magic and alchemy of a photographic or radiographic darkroom. The basic skills of wet processing and later automated processing, that are enhanced by the knowledge and experience of knowing how to manipulate negative and positive images to create the best possible outcome. 

So many mental filing cabinets of know how have been stored in my brain gathering dust since the dawn of digital imaging. Until a February in Penzance when I had a lightbulb moment and decided to start using some of my old analogue knowledge alongside the digital knowledge of contemporary image making.

I am a time-hopping digital immigrant. Using skills taught to me by people called Sheila and Ron in the 70’s ,an era when a dark room technician could turn a disaster into an acceptable picture by clever thinking and the use of tricks and accuracy to make an image better.

This is the first successfully manipulated image created by overlaying three separate digital photographs to create one picture.

The feet below are my most recent  meddled image.

The others are just some of the picture journey. The acceptable part of the journey. Not the many many images that have ended up in the digital bin