Older Works Archives - Marja-Leena Rathje

by Marja-Leena

self-portrait ’68

Self-portrait 1968
drypoint
image size: 24.5 x 22.5 cm (9.5″ x 9″)

I have occassionally posted some of my very much older work here as I unearth them from the bottom of my flat files. This is one I had forgotten to publish though it was very much a favourite of mine. It was one of the last prints done in my final year in art school when my major was actually in painting. This was the time when I really fell in love with printmaking and especially the drypoint technique. It would be well over a decade before I was able to return to printmaking seriously.

My older works may be found in that category under Printworks. Another drypoint from that period is this one.

Added January 5th, 2014: As I continue to edit broken links and other funky things after this blog’s move to WordPress, I do end up reading a lot of old posts. Just now I came across this one, which is about this work being published in Qarrtsiluni! I had forgotten that, and how cheesy my words are!

January 2, 2014 in Older Works, Printworks by Marja-Leena 10 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

a Christmas memory

Mother & Child – etching – image size: 11 x 7 cm. (4.25″ x 3″)

I handprinted this etching in an edition of 65 for Christmas cards sometime in the mid 1980’s, I think. (The date is obscured behind the mat.) It was during a special time when I had found a wonderful print studio where I was able to take up my longed for desire to focus on printmaking. When I came across this particular framed piece in my storage recently, I recalled that it had been hanging in my late parents’ home. With those happy memories, I became inspired to use this as my online Christmas card for this year.

So my dearest friends and readers, with this I wish you a warm and love-filled holiday season, one with happy new memories to hold close. Hyvää Joulua!

December 22, 2013 in Culture, Current Events, Older Works, Printworks by Marja-Leena 13 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

a test piece

Untitled
torn etchings, mylar and cotton string
14.5cm x 24.5 cm. (5.5″ x 10″) plus string

I recently found this in an old sketchbook. It was a little test I once made to experiment with a way of mounting art work on paper. The prints are tucked inside a fold of mylar (plastic) with holes punched all through and held up by string. This made me remember a series of pressed paper pieces that I had made and had mounted in this way. I must look for them and see if I have any slides of them. Another inspiring revisit of past works! I rather like this piece and am toying with the idea of doing this with some new pieces sometime.

Amazing how this connects with my jute and twine, torn drawings and paper tears.

August 26, 2012 in Being an Artist, Older Works, Printmaking by Marja-Leena 6 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Lea, an etching

an early trial proof

a later colour trial proof, almost there

Lea – etching, 1983
image: 22.2 x 22.5 cm. (8.75″ x 8.8″)
Paper: 38 x 38 cm. (15″ x15″)

Here is one of my very early etchings from the time when I returned to printmaking. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I fell in love with printmaking in my last year at art school, too late to major in it, but left with the feeling that I wanted to return to it some day. The opportunity came much much later and of course, I had to spend time relearning the processes.

After deep etching this plate, I worked on numerous proofs, trying out different colours and various ways of inking it. I wrote many notes on the proofs about those processes. The top one is getting close to what I wanted, to my eye at the time, with the technique of intaglio wiping (the blues), then with a relief roll (red) over it. More colour trials were made, with the second image above getting very close. The final editioned version is shown last.

I’m not overly fond of how I designed the image and I now rather prefer the colours in the first one shown, but it’s an example of the process of learning technique before mastering the image along with it.

June 4, 2012 in Older Works, Printmaking, Printworks by Marja-Leena 6 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

student work

Head Study – drypoint, image size 11 x 8.5 cm.

Recently I was going through the very few prints that I still have from my long-ago art school days. This small drypoint is one of them. I remember how fascinated I was in observing heads from an odd perspective, the heads as if slung back, or viewed from a child’s eye level.

November 18, 2006 in Older Works, Printworks by Marja-Leena 8 Comments »

by Marja-Leena