Over the years, while working with paints and inks, I have always secretly admired the accidental by-products such as the waste paper that has been protecting the work surface underneath the actual piece that I’ve been making. Specifically I remember this from the printmaking studio. When the plates were rolled with ink, the colours, textures and compositions on the paper underneath were often unbelievably delicious. I always wanted to save some for an undefined later purpose but talked myself out of it – after all, it was ‘just waste paper’.

So I’ve been enjoying immensely these days, making such ‘waste papers’ on purpose for my next artist book. Also for the first time I now have a proper helper in the studio which makes the work even more fun. White paper was first painted with black ink, random patterns ‘printed’ by pressing wet papers onto each other, crumpled up, splashes of colour added to the white areas and opened flat to dry.

Now I have a stack of very pleasing papers and can enjoy their abstract landscapes of colour and texture without having to throw them away after the ‘real’ work has been completed. This is just the beginning, another book will eventually emerge. (Jul09)