Gelli Print Abstracts

What the heck is a Gelli print?

A Gelli plate is a soft but firm plastic plate that is made from petroleum products and is used to make monoprints (meaning that each print made from the plate is unique and non-reproducible). This is in contrast to, say, a lithograph, where many exact duplicates can be made until the plate wears down.

Paint (usually acrylic) is spread on the Gelli plate, and then a piece of paper is pressed into the plate, and, when lifted, there is a transfer of paint to the paper. Once the paper is dry, the plate can once again have paint applied, and a second (or third or fourth, etc) layer of paint can be pulled up onto the original paper, making for interesting and, at times, very unexpected layered results.

I am learning how to make these prints, but not necessarily to produce a displayable finished print. I am taking the resultant print, taping it to a wall, and photographing interesting parts of it. I can then take these photos and blend them together in various ways within Photoshop to make abstract images. Here are two recent examples.

I titled this first one “Genesis” because it reminded me of the Earth and planets along with a cosmic wind and nourishing sunlight coming in from the upper left.

“Genesis” © Howard Grill

This second image is titled “When Nobody’s Looking, The Trees Dance.” It is a Gelli print (the red background and the black, which I envisioned as mountains and cliffs) combined with three regular photographs as well as one multiple-exposure photo, all blended together in Photoshop.

“When Nobody’s Looking, The Trees Dance” © Howard Grill

I am just learning these techniques, so I suspect that the results will improve.

I am not sure where this mixed media work will lead, but I am enjoying doing it.

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