I am inspired to create by the nature around me and gain great joy from foraging in my own garden and the bush next to our home and using these samples of flowers, grasses, leaves and even weeds to indulge in a highly unique artistic process called Ecoprinting.

Others have used Ecoprinting to achieve prints on textiles but it has not been used so far for intentional artistic production.

In Ecoprinting I collect my botanicals and soak them in a mordant and then arrange a composition on printing paper, wooden cradleboard or canvas. I paint my paper or canvas with another mordant, such as soy milk or oat milk. The entire piece is covered well and then steamed in my homemade invention of an oversized steamer. After a few hours the botanicals release their tannin onto the canvas or paper.

The natural colours of the flowers often print in a different form . eg, purple flowers may print as blue, red flowers may print as purple and some leaves give off a yellow or orange print. I sometimes use the colour that is printed from the botanical but mostly I work intuitively to choose my colour palette.

I take this final print and then paint and draw on it using oil pastels, acrylic washes, pan pastels ,watercolour and archival inks, to produce each unique work of mixed media art.

Ecoprinting helps to connect me to the land that I live on and the process is very grounding. Roaming my garden or the adjacent bush track to forage is relaxing. It has also encouraged me to begin my own U-tube channel Ali’s Art and share videos that I make of my art process via Instagram AliMulvaneyArtist.

This year I have also been taking my Ecoprinting a step further and use the ancient process of Encaustic painting ( hot wax painting) which emerged around the fourteenth century. Hot wax is used to paint, create textures and even to imbed found objects into the mixed media work. The work is fused layer by layer in wax to achieve the complexity of the final work.