Paul Jacoulet

Senegalese Lady with Sothiou and Bambara Fan

The latest ATC challenge was to design a card based on or styled after your favorite artist. It is difficult for me to pick a very favorite artist. It is like trying to pick a favorite color---so many are beautiful, how to choose just one?  I decided to focus on the work of Paul Jacoulet because he is one of my favorites I have not yet worked with.



An example of a Ukiyo-e print

First an explanation of my ATC. This tiny acrylic painting is of a Pulaar Senegalese woman dressed for a special occasion. She is chewing a sothiou (pronounced so-chew) stick which people use here as a kind of toothbrush (and I have heard that it really works for this purpose.) She is holding a Bambara fan which is a kind of woven wicker fan. Her dress is a loose flowing robe that is tie dyed bazin. She wears a matching headwrap. She wears golden beads sewn into her hair. The women may have indigo ink tattooed around their mouth and chin and this is thought to make their smile more beautiful.
I choose the subject, a Pulaar woman, based on Jacoulet's subject preferences of documenting different ethnic groups. He spent much of his career visiting many of the small islands around Japan and the greater Pacific and made prints of the indigenous people. These are important especially because many of the island inhabitants lost their traditional way of life soon after World War II.

Jacoulet was Frenchman who lived in Japan most of his life. His printmaking style is Japanese and he was influenced by Ukiyo-e prints. He was known for exacting standards and high quality materials. He used ground mica, metals and pearls in his prints to give them a luminous look.  Check out a few of his prints at the bottom of this post.

12cm x 9cm inset painted on glass, artist unknown

His work also reminds me of the traditional Senegalese souwere (painting on glass see my previous post.)  Here is a beautiful piece, likely a Woolof woman, inset into a mosaic tea tray that I purchased  from Kamal Mosaic in Dakar.  Sadly, no artist was attributed.




Les Jades, Paul Jacoulet, 1940, one of his Christmas card prints



Sur le Sable, Rhull, Yap, Paul Jacoulet, 1937

Vielle Aino, Paul Jacoulet, 1950

Le Pacifique Mysterieux. Mers Du Sud (The Mysterious Pacific), Paul Jacoulet, 1951

Gelatin Printing On Fabric

Today Beth (who wanted to remain faceless), Maureen, and Janalee came over to investigate gelatin printing with me. Beth and I prepared cookie sheets and pie tins of gelatin last night. This morning when we began we had some difficulties. While, it was not too hard to remove the gelatin from the pie tins, it was practically impossible to get it it out of the cookie sheets in one piece. We decided to leave the gelatin that was in the cookie sheets and work directly from the tray. We used foam brushes and brayers to apply water soluble fabric paint onto the gelatin's surface and then layered stencils, paper cutouts and plant materials over the paint layer.

     

We printed on prepared for dye cottons (fabric from Dharma.) Lay the fabric on the paint and press your hand or hard brayer over the fabric.  The picture on the left shows two layers of paint and you can see the brush marks and stencils clearly. 

 

This image is a 'ghost image'.  That is, the paint that is left over after the first print and the stencils are moved.  The stencils can be flipped, and repositioned.

When you are done with your original and ghost, just wipe the plate gently with a damp paper towel and on the the next image.

  

Here, Janalee used one of her stencils as a stamp.  She painted it orange and then rolled the brayer over it. 

  Eventually, the plates fall apart.  I had a lot of fun.  The process is very tactile, a little messy but inexpensive and requires little special materials.  I think I will try it with the kids when they come home.

Further resources:  Pokey Bolton of Quilting Arts has a great 'how to' blog article.  Linda Germain has very good video on Youtube on gelatin printing on paper below. 

 

Weaver Bird & Nest

This is second in the series of bird stamps I am creating.  The first was the Scops Owl and this is the Weaver bird with its nest.  I photographed this bird on my street when I just arrived in September (spring in South Africa.)  The Weaver bird has a bright yellow mating plumage and this one was near its nest in a Fever tree.  The artist trading card is the stamped image with color pencil.

Night Owls

Another quick project.  I began with a Speedball Speedycut rubber sheet and drew a South African Scops Owl in pencil.  My husband, last to use my carving tools, seems to have lost them during the move so I used a simple paring knife to cut away the rubber sheet.  As I cut away from my design, I use a Sharpie to highlight the areas left behind would print as I intended.  Once the stamp was complete I stamped it onto commercial scrapbooking paper with silver embossing powder.  I have layered this image with other scrapbooking papers and then completed my ATC with a couple of sequins and did some detailing with colored pencils and pens. 
The wonderful thing about carving this stamp is that I could work on it five minutes at a time until finished.  A very handy aspect in a project when caring for a toddler!