The tradition established by artist Mitch Lyons with clay monoprints is to start each work on top of “remnants” of the previous art; some of the clay slip remains behind, gradually building color and design elements that will peek into new art. That randomness is one of the key elements that separates clay monoprint techniques from other printing mediums.

The image at the top of this article shows the clay matrix (in this case, the clay slab upon which new works are designed) as it appeared after pulling the previous print. It also serves as the starting point of the next print. While this new print will primarily be composed of clay slip newly added, some of the former slip in this starting point will also randomly transfer.

In this work, I wanted a background of related colors, so I “painted” various shades of clay slips directly on the matrix, as shown above.

Design elements are added to newsprint and allowed to partially dry.

After all of the design elements were added to the matrix, a piece of pellon was dampened and prepared.

Using various tools, the image is transferred to the pellon. Often, you will see some of the clay slip appearing through the material, as shown above.

The print is allowed to dry and is sprayed with a waterproof sealant, bringing out color and protecting the image. In most cases, the print is then ready for display. In this case, however, black oil paint lines were added on top of the print.

And the matrix? It has a new layer of art history, and awaits the next print.