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Studie, Pastell, je 10×17cm, 2010, © Astrid Volquardsen

Our new neighbourhood is surrounded by birches, so now I can easily observe how they change their color every day. I always believed they start right away with some light green. Well, they don‹t. I didn’t take any photos and as I stood there and looked at the colors to memorize them, I was really surprised to see these brownish, greenish, reddish…whatever colors.

As I again took a closer look today I was startled by the color of the sky. It usually isn’t that blue, something was somehow different. It obviously has to do with the flight restrictions over northern Europe, because of the vulcanic ash cloud from Icelands vulcano Eyjafjallajoekull (that’s a grand name, eh? I found a funny link about it’s pronounciation: Iceland Volcano spews consonants and vowels). All airports in Northern Europe have been closed for two days now, so no condensation trails can be seen in the sky.

2010 © Astrid Volquardsen

The idea for the monotypes first came to me during an exhibition visit in Paris. Reading some information about Degas‹ work, it struck me, that some of his pastels were done over monotype. Degas applied an oily ink to a metal plate with a brush or rag and put it through a press. After that he used a mixture of pastel, gouache, and distemper to color his monotypes. I was surprised to learn that some of Degas‹ pastels were even done directly over oil paint. Unfortunately I can’t recall which those pictures are. (Imagine you’re in Paris and have caught a stomach flu!)

So I thought why not try oil paint instead of oily ink.
I just put some oilpaint (Sennelier) on an extra plate, added turpentine, and applied this with a brush an a piece of glass. Instead of a press I simply used an ink roller.
I tried various grounds for the monotype, but the Pastelmat seems to take it on best.
I varied the mixture of turpentine and oil paint and it seems best to work with pastels the more the oil paint is thinned down with turpentine.

The bottom right was done with the most amount of turpentine.
(Winterfarbimpressionen I)
2010 © Astrid Volquardsen

I waited for about a week till I applied the pastel, but I’m not sure if there won’t be some alterations. I’ve got the feeling the one monotype with the most »pure« oil paint alters already. (I guess, every experienced oil painter could have told me that.)
A number of Degas‹ monotypes have suffered from cracking and subsequent flaking. Well, they still looked beautiful to me.