I’ve been having a wonderful time housesitting at Villa Ananda in Sicily experimenting with cyanotypes and planning my workshops. Valentina and I are running a wonderful Botanical Arts Day at the Villa on Saturday May 4th 2024 with cyanotype and natural dye workshops and a botanical lunch.
I’ve used cyanotype processing previously in England with good results and wanted to experiment further with wet cyantotypes and using the botanicals growing on the land in the beautiful area of Palazzolo Acreide.
Making sure to plan well ahead I loved working with the wild artemisia whose little branches look like mini trees and the just blossoming mimosa with its delightful little yellow balls. I pressed them for a few days in a heavy book so their detailed edges would be clear and crisp when exposing the images.
As much as I love cyanotype blue I also wanted to experiment cyanotyping on top of natural colours made from the flora in the garden, some spices from the kitchen and some mordants and ingredients that deepen colours. For a mordant I tried milk on watercolour paper then dried before adding colour. White wine vinegar and hydrogen peroxide applied after colour (cyanotype) or with colour (red cabbage) were worth experimenting with.
Luckily the understairs cupboard at Villa Ananda has a light, a sink and surface to work on so I was able to take my time carefully preparing wet cyanotypes, vintage sheet music and some pages of a ruined novel with some mixed media collage work in mind in the future.
As well as the blue from the cyanotypes I made papers:
- Yellow from turmeric
- Red from red wine
- A very light green that layered more deeply with each coat from rosemary
- Pinks, blues and greens depending on which paper or additive I used with madder berries and red cabbage
- Avocado skins with the stone gave me a luscious peach on watercolour paper, the color is pinker if you don’t add the broken stone too
If you would like to join my Sicily Art Escape at Villa Ananda for 5 days and nights with 4x art workshops, pool, 4x brunch and supper with beautiful accommodation – 29th April – 5th May 2024 please drop me aline. Only two spaces left!
Join our Botanical Arts Day on Saturday May 4th – €45 – Please drop me or Valentina at Villa Ananda a line to reserve your space. We can’t wait to welcome you!
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