The Hot Bed Press 20:20 print exchange is an annual event which is now in its 5th year. It started in 2009 as a project between Hot Bed Press and Red Hot Press! Wonderful names and well twinned! It then grew exponentially with, in 2012, 31 print workshops taking part, producing 9,800 prints by 391 artists.
Each workshop is invited to submit 10, 20 or 30 artists to be involved. Every artist produces an edition of 25 prints on paper size 20 x 20 cms. In return the artist receives a randomly selected box of prints from members of the other participating workshops. In addition each workshop receives 2 boxed sets, one randomly selected, and one twinned set randomly matched to another print workshop, each receiving a set of 10 of their own members’ prints and one set from their “twinned parner workshop”. Follow?!
At the end of November every workshop will simultaneously launch their 20:20 with all prints being posted on the Hot Bed Press Flickr site. One print from every artist will be kept by Hot Bed to be exhibited in a travelling show taking place throughout 2014.
We at Tamar Print Workshop took a while to work all this out but we think we understand what to expect in terms of boxes and exhibitions and launches and so on! I am thrilled to say that we can take part this year and have gathered together 10 printmakers who are now getting down to work on their images for the exchange. This is quite an achievement considering we are a relatively small concern. And even more impressive will be the variety of prints to be submitted. In progress so far we have a multiple block colour linocut and etching from Rachel Heseltine, a variable edition reduction lino cut from Dorothy Hanna, a drypoint from Ley Roberts, black and white etchings from Phil Belcher, Annette Ford and Max Burrows, a colour viscosity etching from me and a carborundum from Tanya Morel. Fiona Smart and Gay Kent have yet to decide but, without doubt, will provide yet more variety to the mix in terms of content, style and technique.
So – something for all!
Here is my idea derived from a small painting just completed. It will be interesting to see how the etching transforms the painting. The etching will be just 11 x 8cms.
I hope to post more of our images in progress in due course so keep watching…….
At last I have completed and editioned my four images for our handmade book due to be published in November. I am one of six artists contributing four original prints each, in various printmaking media including etching, collagraph, linocut and wood engraving. The images reflect the colours of the rainbow and are interpretations of specially chosen excerpts from some poems of our choice. It has been a marathon task. I am not one for editioning – it is a skilled and often quite laborious task, but I feel a certain sense of satisfaction now my handmade prints on lovely Somerset paper are neatly piled and being flattened under boards with heavy weights on top – all 75 of them (including spares). We will be producing 12 books with 6 for sale at £350 each. An absolute bargain! And I’m not joking about that!
Here is a preview of my contributions.
I chose an excerpt from a poem by Alyson Hallett for ‘white’. It’s from a book of poems, photographs and scientific text called “Six Days in Iceland”, published by Dropstone Press. The poem is called “Atlas of Iceland in Nineteen Pages”, and the excerpt is from a section entitled “P.11”. The print is not exactly white! But then what is?
“Out here in this clean air
by this high mountain
with swan-white snow
the sound of melting ice
like the sound stars might make if we could hear them”
For ‘green’ I chose an excerpt from “Before summer rain” by Rilke.
“Suddenly, from all the green around you,
something-you don’t know what – has disappeared;
you feel it creeping closer to the window,
in total silence. From the nearby wood
you hear the urgent whistling of a plover……”
And the excerpt from Elisabeth Rowe’s poem, Bornholm, mentions no colour but it made me think of ‘indigo’. The poem is from her collection, “Surface Tension”, published by Peterloo Poets.
“Everything is in shift:
obedient to the moon, each tide aligns
and re-aligns the watery interface of
earth, air and ocean.”
John Magee’s poem “High flight” also made me think of ‘indigo’. But then, again, it’s a question of how you interpret the words “burning blue”. Perhaps we’ll place it between the two.
“Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew –
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.”
If you’re interested in seeing the book please contact me (mary@gulwork.wanadoo.co.uk) and I can give you details of the exhibition at High Cross House, Dartington where it will be on display from November 2013 to January 2014, together with individually framed examples of all the prints and texts (for sale too).
The expression “out of chaos comes order” often springs to mind not only in the progress of my own work but also during my printmaking workshops and this was certainly the case over the weekend!
Here is the list of things that I had planned to cover:-
1. The multiple plate print (particularly in etching)
2. Viscosity printing (in etching, collagraph and monotype)
3. Relief printing (in etching and collagraph)
4. The “dolly”, or “a la poupée”, method of inking up a colour etching or collagraph plate
5. Chine Collé
6. Masks and stencils
7. Other hints and tips about inking up colour collagraph plates
8. Monotype and monoprint.
9. Colour reduction lino cut and/ or multiple block lino.
I had spent the previous evening marking examples in books from my library with “sticky notes” and digging out various original examples from my plan chest. At the beginning of the first day everyone gathered round while I tried to give brief explanations and show a variety of colour printmaking techniques. “Tried” and “brief” being the operative words – so many questions and ideas were thrown up that we barely got past the first 5 sets of examples before we started to feel overloaded with the prospect of never-ending possibilities! So we stopped at Chine Collé with a view to coming back to the rest at some other stage. It is always difficult to know how much information to provide at first. I tend to verge on the ‘too much’, rather than the ‘too little’, which does perhaps cause a considerable amount of chaos, both in the head and in the workshop space! But ultimately, through the learning process, and the exchange of experiences and ideas between people, it always results in the emergence of a range of varied and arresting imagery.
As it happened – by the end of the 3 days students had covered almost everything – adding to their own learning curves by looking over other people’s shoulders and following the progress of each individual, thus gathering valuable information from the amorphous development of many different ideas and techniques.
Some of the photos I took are too blurred to include – I don’t seem to have got the hang of my phone camera yet. But these are some examples of what went on over the weekend. Watch out for another of these 3 day workshops – I am planning to add one to my Summer programme (tbc).
The opening of our show, Fresh off the Press, took place last night at the Limekiln Gallery in Calstock. I am trying to remember if any of our previous openings were quite so busy.
I arrived early which meant I had the chance to see the show in full before everyone else turned up. It’s a mystery to me how the gallery owners, Ley and Bernie, managed to achieve such coherence out of such amazing diversity.
The show reflected the unique qualities of all the artists that work together here at Tamar Print Workshop and there were many comments about the high standard of printmaking. I am always so impressed by what I see once everything is framed up and displayed in a gallery setting. When I’m working with people I become as “close” to the images as the artists themselves, and very often I find it equally hard to see objectively (What help is that you might say? But perhaps it’s better to err on the empathetic side, rather than be too disengaged and objective during the teaching exchange.)
I was struck by the number of people who were still intent on getting through to the pictures to look properly at them despite the large numbers of guests that filled the two gallery spaces. Though to look at these photos you might be thinking “pictures? what pictures?” Always a sign of a good PV!! But joking apart – sales were encouraging and lots of people said they would be coming back to look again when it was quieter.
My thanks to everyone – Ley and Bernie, all the artists, and all the guests. It was a truly inspiring occasion, topped off by a gift – a beautiful bunch of flowers, now flaunting itself in a large vase on my kitchen table.
Looking forward to Fresh off the Press 2013 – our annual show of original prints at the Limekiln Gallery, Calstock. If you want more info. click here , and to see some of the work online, click here, and here too.
Following on from a course with Peter Wray and Judy Collins that I attended in the summer, I thought it would be fun to experiment further with one or two of the techniques that they introduced to us. So I and a couple of accomplices took a few pieces of aluminium plate, applied parcel tape, acrylic paint, masking tape, sellotape and tile cement and tried scorching them to make random textures. It was so cold outside (being the safest place to wield a blow torch) that the process was even more uncontrollable than usual. We trusted to the elements for a bit and then gave up and came inside.
We did, however, come up with some entertaining results and the usual food for thought.
A reminder of what Tamar Print Workshop has in store at the beginning of 2013.
My weekly classes are thriving with only a few spaces to offer at present. The Wednesday afternoon class has room for one or 2 more people, the Wednesday evening also, but the Thursday morning class is, as always, oversubscribed with people queuing for places.
Here is a breakdown of the longer workshops and courses that are taking place in January, February and March. There are still spaces on all of them.
I AM RUNNING GENERAL WORKSHOPS INCLUDING ETCHING FOR ALL (BEGINNERS AND EXPERIENCED) ON:-
26TH AND 27TH JANUARY,
23RD AND 24TH FEBRUARY
AND 23RD AND 24TH MARCH.
You can come to any of the general workshops to develop your work using the medium of your choice.
However, these workshops are interspersed with more specific courses where you can learn other techniques, and I would recommend that if you are new to any of the techniques (apart from etching), you book in for the “specialist” course first. After that, of course, there’s nothing to stop you working with these other techniques at any of the general workshops. The mix of activities results in a fascinating experience for participants!
The first course of the new year is on SATURDAY 19TH AND SUNDAY 20TH JANUARY. We’ll be exploring (for want of a better word – I know it’s a bit clichéd these days) the techniques of carborundum and collagraph. The carborundum technique involves the use of a very fine gritty substance mixed with PVA which can be applied to a variety of surfaces, e.g. card, ply, metal. It is a wonderfully versatile medium which results in exciting and rich imagery, lending itself to both black and white, and colour. It is probably the closest thing to painting (bar monotype) and allows for great spontaneity, immediacy and expression. It is relatively controllable and so it can be adapted to many different ideas and ways of working.
The collagraph technique is more than often used in conjunction with carborundum and in fact the two are often lumped together as a collagraphic technique. Think of making a collage, and then think of sealing it with a thin layer of glue, then imagine rubbing ink into the textured surfaces, wiping off the excess and taking a print on damp paper (as in etching). It’s potentially the most inventive (and it’s the least technical, bar monotype again!) of all the printmaking techniques, and the most unpredictable, though as with everything, once you get the hang of it, it becomes more “obedient”. (If that’s what you want!) Again, there is a mass of potential in terms of mark making and printing both in colour and black and white. (For examples type the relevant terms into Google Images.)
I envisaged the BEGINNERS COURSE on 9TH AND 10TH FEBRUARY as an introduction to traditional etching. But I am happy to turn this into a “Beginners Course of your Choice” for those who have done very little or no printmaking at all in the past…we’ll leave this open. The course was initially for people who might prefer to be with other beginners, rather than join a General group to learn about etching (as mentioned above).
Then, last but not least, WORKING WITH COLOUR USING ETCHING, COLLAGRAPH, and OTHER TECHNIQUES: 8TH, 9TH, 10TH MARCH (FRIDAY, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY). I would suggest that this is probably the only course that I am running aimed at the slightly more experienced printmaker. One of the main areas I intend to cover is the principle of the 3 plate colour etching. I say “principle” because sometimes it is difficult to complete a complicated 3 plate etching in such a short period of time. I will also introduce or consolidate the many ways of using colour on single plates including the “dolly” method, and the viscosity method*. We can explore these using collagraph plates too as collagraphs are quicker to make than etchings and will enable more experimentation with ways of applying colour. Bring in some old etching plates and/or collagraphs that you can develop or re-work. We can also try the viscosity technique with monotype.
(* Stanley William Hayter developed the “Viscosity method” at his famous studio, Atelier 17 (located first in Paris between the wars and then later in New York). The technique involves rolling a thicker, more viscous ink over a thinner ink. The thicker ink is rejected and adheres only to the surface surrounding the first ink. Sounds simple? It achieves surprising and sometimes quite stunning results.)
Don’t forget to look at the website – http://www.marygillett.co.uk/workshops.php for a downloadable booking form, and more dates and times, (including Spring and Summer 5 day courses).!
A reminder of what Tamar Print Workshop has in store at the beginning of 2013.
My weekly classes are thriving with only a few spaces to offer at present. The Wednesday afternoon class has room for one or 2 more people, the Wednesday evening also, but the Thursday morning class is, as always, oversubscribed with people queuing for places.
Here is a breakdown of the longer workshops and courses that are taking place in January, February and March. There are still spaces on all of them.
I AM RUNNING GENERAL WORKSHOPS INCLUDING ETCHING FOR ALL (BEGINNERS AND EXPERIENCED) ON:-
26TH AND 27TH JANUARY,
23RD AND 24TH FEBRUARY
AND 23RD AND 24TH MARCH.
You can come to any of the general workshops to develop your work using the medium of your choice.
However, these workshops are interspersed with more specific courses where you can learn other techniques, and I would recommend that if you are new to any of the techniques (apart from etching), you book in for the “specialist” course first. After that, of course, there’s nothing to stop you working with these other techniques at any of the general workshops. The mix of activities results in a fascinating experience for participants!
The first course of the new year is on SATURDAY 19TH AND SUNDAY 20TH JANUARY. We’ll be exploring (for want of a better word – I know it’s a bit clichéd these days) the techniques of carborundum and collagraph. The carborundum technique involves the use of a very fine gritty substance mixed with PVA which can be applied to a variety of surfaces, e.g. card, ply, metal. It is a wonderfully versatile medium which results in exciting and rich imagery, lending itself to both black and white, and colour. It is probably the closest thing to painting (bar monotype) and allows for great spontaneity, immediacy and expression. It is relatively controllable and so it can be adapted to many different ideas and ways of working.
The collagraph technique is more than often used in conjunction with carborundum and in fact the two are often lumped together as a collagraphic technique. Think of making a collage, and then think of sealing it with a thin layer of glue, then imagine rubbing ink into the textured surfaces, wiping off the excess and taking a print on damp paper (as in etching). It’s potentially the most inventive (and it’s the least technical, bar monotype again!) of all the printmaking techniques, and the most unpredictable, though as with everything, once you get the hang of it, it becomes more “obedient”. (If that’s what you want!) Again, there is a mass of potential in terms of mark making and printing both in colour and black and white. (For examples type the relevant terms into Google Images.)
I envisaged the BEGINNERS COURSE on 9TH AND 10TH FEBRUARY as an introduction to traditional etching. But I am happy to turn this into a “Beginners Course of your Choice” for those who have done very little or no printmaking at all in the past…we’ll leave this open. The course was initially for people who might prefer to be with other beginners, rather than join a General group to learn about etching (as mentioned above).
Then, last but not least, WORKING WITH COLOUR USING ETCHING, COLLAGRAPH, and OTHER TECHNIQUES: 8TH, 9TH, 10TH MARCH (FRIDAY, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY). I would suggest that this is probably the only course that I am running aimed at the slightly more experienced printmaker. One of the main areas I intend to cover is the principle of the 3 plate colour etching. I say “principle” because sometimes it is difficult to complete a complicated 3 plate etching in such a short period of time. I will also introduce or consolidate the many ways of using colour on single plates including the “dolly” method, and the viscosity method*. We can explore these using collagraph plates too as collagraphs are quicker to make than etchings and will enable more experimentation with ways of applying colour. Bring in some old etching plates and/or collagraphs that you can develop or re-work. We can also try the viscosity technique with monotype.
(* Stanley William Hayter developed the “Viscosity method” at his famous studio, Atelier 17 (located first in Paris between the wars and then later in New York). The technique involves rolling a thicker, more viscous ink over a thinner ink. The thicker ink is rejected and adheres only to the surface surrounding the first ink. Sounds simple? It achieves surprising and sometimes quite stunning results.)
Don’t forget to look at the website – http://www.marygillett.co.uk/workshops.php for a downloadable booking form, and more dates and times, (including Spring and Summer 5 day courses).!
Comments Off on Two days with some Kelly College etchers
I have just completed my annual workshop with sixth formers from our local private school, Kelly College. On the first day the students were accompanied by their new head of art, Gemma Spooner, who came along to find out what we get up to. On the second Alex McCarthy, artist in residence at Kelly, was my helper and as usual he was fully occupied with control of the last minute rush to complete the etchings and then the frenzy of printing which always ensues on the last day. Many thanks to Gemma and Alex, but also to the students – lively as always, but every single one was really focused this year and worked very hard to fulfil their potential. I hope they enjoyed themselves as much as I did. I was thrilled with the results. See for yourself…
Ian Rankin, who recently featured in an episode of the BBC series “Imagine”, struck a few chords with me. His comments about writing parallel all the creative arts processes it seems to me. He said that every book has a notion of perfection but as you write this notion begins to fall away. He quoted Iris Murdock – “Every book is the wreck of a perfect idea”. There were other comments he made which resonated, such as – he is never certain where he is going, he doesn’t feel in control of the process, there’s lots to be afraid of and, “Last night I suddenly got the fear again”! These are brave revelations.
It’s a roller coaster – one day he thinks it’s bad, one day he thinks it’s really good, another he thinks it’s dreadful. During the process he pours all his thoughts onto the pages and then suddenly runs out of steam and things start going badly. It’s a pattern which repeats itself. His wife is the stabilising influence. She reminds him of which stage he is approaching – it’s a crisis that always happens at page 65. With me, for example, it is probably the 6th stage proof of an etching, or the 10th day of a painting. You feel everything is falling apart and you’ll never get to the point and you’re losing the plot. But everything will be alright (says Ian Rankin’s wife – she’s seen it all before). You’ve just got to hang on. And she’s right – relatively speaking.
If I get the time I plan to make a photographic record of the progression through my last etching. (I’ve lost count of the number of proofs it has taken between inception and completion, but I believe it has gone through more changes than any etching I have ever done.) I’ll then post it here – just to prove a point!
In the end you just have to stop all this and get on with the next (imperfect) thing.
