PRINTMAKING - Cecil Collins

Cecil Collins was an English painter and printmaker and was sometimes associated with the Surrealist movement. He was born in Plymouth 1908, and died in London 1989.

 I decided to write a report on him because as i was looking through the list of printmaking and looking them up, his work really interested me. The first prints i came across were these:

The Fool 1944- Roneo Print on Paper 

Fool Carrying a Child - Etching on paper

Fool with a Flower - Lithography on paper

I found these interesting because, obviously they are all of a "fool". But all in different forms of printing. Etching, Lithography and roneo print... What i like about it is the linear approach to all of them, but how all three are different ways to make something linear. Thin, Thick, simple, complex... It interests me to see how one can have more information than the other but still saying the same thing. 

The amount of information in a work is something i struggle with. When i do life drawing i think of this a lot. It really interested me when i found this Etching by Collins. 

Seated Nude 1944 - Etching.

This is obviously linear. with really simple marks. yet it is communicating a figure. The fool and the woman, are so simple. Around the 40's a lot of the art i have seen was very busy i guess because of the time, the technology and machinery. It stands out to me because of this.  

Sometimes things are just so complex, and so hard to process visually. Visual noise. I feel overwhelmed by it. Seeing these prints makes me feel very calm... Like when you breathe out. I forget sometimes to just ask the simplest question. How dose this piece make me feel?.