Artist Catherine Mc Cue Boes

Catherine Mc Cue  One hundred and thirty kilometres from Eronmanga, south west of Queensland is a gas plant, where working as an artist in residence I was free to explore the landscape in and around the plant.  My main interest was in the visual contamination of the surrounding landscape. The images produced use techniques such as mokulito, ‘wood lithography’, monoprint and digitally altered photography. Steel Landscape depicts the harsh landscape that surrounds the plant, the work focuses on the disused material from the plant, now embedded in the dry earth, which in a way has become an accidental sculptural form.  Steel Landscape Mokulito This one was a little different to the others, I did the same preparation as the others, sand, milk, draw add a little nitric  to the gum, but left the plate a lot longer than usual due to unforeseen circumstances. This work also included the use of mono printing to form the background colour, using a cl...

Historia, Queenscliff Gallery and Workshop  35 lithographs According to the book or bible; Jonah  or  Jonas  is the name given in the  Hebrew Bible  ( Tanakh / Old Testament ) to a  prophet  of the northern  kingdom of Israel  in about the 8th century  BCE . He is the eponymous central figure of the  Book of Jonah , in which he is called upon by  God  to travel to  Nineveh  and warn its residents of impending  divine wrath . Instead, Jonah boards a ship to  Tarshish . Caught in a storm, he orders the ship's crew to cast him overboard, whereupon he is swallowed by a giant fish. Three days later, after Jonah agrees to go to Nineveh, the fish vomits him out onto the shore. Jonah successfully convinces the entire city of Nineveh to repent, but waits outside the city in expectation of its destruction. God shields Jonah from the sun with a  plant , but later sends a worm to cause it to wither....

Mokulito, wood lithography, Harriet, Clara, and Joan   As with the other works, Joan has been produced using Luna wood, sanded, but also given a wash of goats milk with a little cloudy ammonia added, allowed to dry, drawing with  the usual litho materials and washes and some cutting into the wood to add texture. This time I added a little nitric  to my gum, 3 drops and worked on the plate as  I would for stone lithography, the plate was allowed to dry for three days and printed in the same manner as the first two works. The results as far as I can see is less of the wood grain printing up, due to the binding of the milk on the plate and  a much larger edition. I personally love the grain so might try a different approach for the next work.

Another two plate wood lithograph, this image was processed using gum only, left to dry for three days, the results where very good when compared with the first image which was etched using gum acid mix on a pre milked sanded board. The other aspect of this process is the cutting out of areas of the plywood to create a white areas, which I liked.   It has been  an interesting start to the new year, been busy trying out different techniques for wood lithography and I am seeing some great works being created. The work so far are based on the Girls Own series started in 2018, the first imaged produced using Mokulito is inspired by Harriet, an antislavery campaigner and Clara, who is said to have created the Red Cross association. Both works have been produced by using Luna wood, two plates each and added chine collie. Some where printed as single plate edition and the other as a two plate colour run. The  total number produced  for both plates is 30, but it wo...

ok been working in the studio, about time, nice to get the time, started working on plywood to add a colour plate to my stone lithography but have found the process to be fascinating, so will continue to do research and discuss the findings on my site.

Ok after many months of working on a collaboration project with write/artist Sue Hutton, we are finally getting it together, six of the images are nearing completion and sue has provided short stories for each. The aim is to create another seven works with text and then self publish the finished product. this will be an ARTIST BOOK and should not be considered as anything other, there are a lot of people and even those organisers of art prizes who have no understanding of what an artist book is, some seem to think is to do with book binding, or altered books, and or photo books. Lots of crafty looking hand bound books are being mistaken for an actual artist book. This is a book that contains original images and text  specifically created for the purpose of making and printing a book made by artists. Watch this space.

Another version: War Games 16 etchings, Color and b/w etchings, soft ground and dry point. Housing: Hard cover in black book cloth with handmade marbled paper, red ties with bullet casing, double concertina artist book. Unique 1987 Part of the Boys toys series that started in 1987. Watching my son playing with toy soldiers lets to a body of work that reflects the destructive nature of boys and their toys. Does this sound like someone you know?