printmaking workshop in Atikokan Ontario August 26 2017

participants at the inking table

This past weekend I traveled 2.5 hours west of my homebase to the town of Atikokan, Ontario (pop. 2700) to deliver a workshop in intaglio (engraving on plastic plate). The workshop originally would have taken place back in July when my Small Wonders The Boreal exhibition was on display at the Pictograph Gallery in Atikokan, but due to my unavailability at the time it was decided to have the workshop happen the late part of August.

Atikokan business district 

Economic Development Offices across the street from Pictograph Gallery where workshop was held

The focus of instruction was engraving into plastic plate. Most of the participants were new to the medium, except for one young woman who is entering her second year of Visual Arts at Lakehead University. She had already been introduced to etching, relief, serigraphy and lithography in the printmaking component for first year students enrolled in the program.

I gave a demo in basic plate engraving techniques using sharp needle tools. I additionally touched on plate effects that incorporate drawing techniques like cross-hatch and stipple, scuffing the plate surface using sanding tools to create areas that will print darker, collage application of thin colour oriental papers (chine-collé), spot inking the plate surface with various colours of ink (à la poupée) and finally introduction of colour to a monochromatic print using either dry media or water based media and brush.

Katy developed her image from a sketch in her artist notebook, Here she was cutting out small pieces of oriental tissue to set on the plate surface for the addition of colour to the print using collage.

reveal of single colour print from plate after passing under small press roller

plate and print on press bed

Keira's study of a wild iris blossom

addition of chine-colle with blue mulberry paper collage

Joan wiping ink into plate with bunched webbing fabric

Joan's plate print of Lady Slipper plants. Watercolour will be used to colourize the image

Lady Slipper print with selective wiping to add plate tone

Katy's cat print with chine-colle

Another version from the plate where the artist wiped the ink à la poupée

Drypoint Workshops Saturday March 23 & March 30 2013

Participants engaged in intaglio printmaking workshop

in Dryden Ontario Sat. Mar 24 2013

Yours truly (standing) and some of the 13 participants who attended

my drypoint on plastic plate with monotype workshop held in Thunder Bay

on Saturday March 30, 2013.

The past week has been a busy one. Yesterday I gave the second of two workshops here in my home city. Last Saturday in the city of Dryden Ontario (4 hours west of here) I gave the same workshop in drypoint on plastic plate to 11 participants.

Participants were given pre-cut plates (13 x 17 cm) or 5 x 7 inches and drypoint tools. They scribed images into the surface and also were encouraged to experiment with altering the surface of the plastic using sandpaper, implementing drawing techniques such as crosshatching and stippling to create tonal areas.

They were not only able to produce a single colour image on paper but I also showed them how to apply spot wiping of colour on the surface of the plate (a la poupee), monotype from a separate plate and also direct application of thinned out ink using brush to the surface of the plastic.

I would say this endeavour turned out very successful and every person who participated really enjoyed this type of printmaking and took home several prints each that originated from their individual plates. Below are photos showing highlights of these workshops.

more drypoint experimentation on plastic plate

drypoint on packaging plastic

I was lucky to discover recently during a trip to Toronto a product for the visual arts found at Above Ground Art on McCaul St. This is simply known as packaging plastic. It is a bit thicker than acetate but is thinner and more flexible than plexiglass.
Knowing that I have several upcoming public art workshops I decided to get a sample piece and try out a drypoint image on this plastic sheet. If this worked out I would get more of this product for workshop participants to use.
My goal was to do something fairly simple in design that I could use as a demo piece. It would also be a surface that I might experiment a bit with a couple of different etching inks. These included Akua intaglio ink (soy) and Caligo safewash etching ink (which is derived from flax).
A photo I had taken last year of a swallowtail butterfly became the basis for the sketch which was placed underneath the plastic.
I noticed that when the thin protective plastic wrapping was removed from the clear plastic the sheet developed a slight bow. Apparently the product was cut from a larger roll into individual sheets. This was a bit of an issue but I compensated by placing double sided clear tape underneath to secure it flat to my working surface and give me good contact with my sketch underneath.

Using various sharp pointed tools including an etching needle, diamond tip drypoint needle and homemade darning needle embedded into the end of a piece of wood dowel I scribed lines into the surface. For the dark areas I rough up the surface using both the diamond point in a circular scribbling type motion using the wrist. I also lightly sanded a few areas with fine grit sandpaper to add a bit more texture.

the butterfly drypoint plate

Below are some of the results in photos. The image at the beginning of this post is a basic black ink print on Maidstone white rag. It was printed using Akua intaglio carbon black with a 25% addition of pthalo blue.

I also experimented with printing the drypoint into a monotype made from a separate plate. A piece of Duralar wet media film was cut to the same dimensions of the drypoint plate. I put some tabs of double sided photo mounting tape in between to keep the top plate from slipping during the application of the thinned akua intaglio inks (made a bit more fluid with the addition of a small amount of blending medium). I used the drypoint below as my guide for where to paint in colours of ink. The monotype plate was carefully taken off and placing a piece of lightly misted rag paper I rubbed the back of the paper using my hand and a rubbing stick to transfer ink.

monotype on duralar wet media film painted

on with a brush using thinned akua intaglio inks

Then I took the drypoint plate and using careful steady hand/eye coordination set that facedown over the monotype. I ever so carefully flipped this over and set it on the bed of my small etching press. I lay the 3 layers of felts over top and passed this under the top roller.

drypoint and monotype

Finally I printed a black and white from the plate but this time around using Caligo safewash etching ink (carbon black) and added a minute amount of wiping compound.

The print was fastened to a thin piece of board and allowed several days to dry. I applied watercolour into the print and came up with the following image that is pretty close to what I see in my photo reference:

Swallowtail butterfly

hand coloured drypoint

2013

Show of small hand printed works

Look Closer: Small and miniature printmaking exhibition

Baggage Building Arts Center

Prince Arthurs Landing, Thunder Bay ON

Aug 1 - 31

I currently have a public showing of 30 studies that are on display until the end of the month in a section of a brand new arts center located in the newly developed Prince Arthurs Landing here in Thunder Bay.  

The exhibition is titled Look Closer. It was funded courtesy of an exhibition assitance grant from the Ontario Arts Council.

Here is an excerpt from my artist statement for this particular series:

With this series titled “Look Closer” I have put together a collection of works on paper originating from various above and below surface matrix that are hand-printed. These are select pieces from a collection that spans a period of over 20 years and that represent a cross section of various printmaking techniques I have explored to date. The uniqueness of this particular series is the size of the imagery. About half of these fall into a category known as miniature art. True miniature art by definition would not be bigger than what could fit into the palm of your hand. Some of the works exceed this but are still considered small in size.

There are several reasons why I chose to create artwork of this scale.

First, it forces you the viewer to get close and personal with each work. It is my hope you develop an intimate relationship with the image. There is a saying that less is more. I think such is the case with this series. They are not so small that the image is unrecognizable but still requires a close proximity to really see details.

Working with imagery on this scale forced me to refine the techniques being used and determine how to work a surface to allow particular small details to become evident, as for example wood engraving. If these were in a larger format then I wouldn’t have had as much of a challenge since details would be more prominently displayed and easier to view.

Finally I made good use of odds and end pieces of plates, blocks and screen stencil areas that might otherwise have been tossed in the bin.

I have a video tour of the works uploaded to my YouTube page
click this link if you would like to see all of the works featured as recorded on video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5Wf5ncNtgw&feature=share

Here are some more photos taken on-site:

Baggage Building Arts Center

Prince Arthurs Landing

Marina Park, Thunder Bay Ontario

Cascading water feature and second entrance to the gallery/gift shop on the upper left.

This is an older Canadian National/Canadian Pacific Railways baggage building

that found a second life as a seasonal art gallery from the 1970s through to 2007.

The structure was designated historically relevant and was renovated from 2008 - 2102 

and had an addition added onto the side of the building extending out towards the lake.
The structure has once again found use this time around as a community based arts space

complete with a gallery, gift shop and areas for artists to work and public workshops can take place.

 Outdoor large scale sculpture installation at the Water Garden pavillion

entering the building from street level and looking towards the artists and workshop area

defined by plenty of natural light

workshop area

 Gallery and Gift shop on the upper level

Here is a grouping of pieces set on a panel that designates the entrance area to my exhibition.
The sunset block print in the pine frame is on loan from friends for the duration of the show.
 This particular image had broad appeal when it made its debut about 8 years back
and was one that best defines some of the regional influences in my work .

overall frame size for these landscape studies

measure 8 x 10 inches (20 x 25 cm)

 one of my small polymer plate etchings that incorporates the addition of watercolour 

you can see the printed image area is really no larger than a business card

(which are the size of the tags below each work)

 section of a panel that features vertical format prints

another panel with square studies and two horizontal studies of cats

 I had a little time before the opening to experiment again with collagraph printmaking

here is a print that emerged recently from the studio

Giant's Head

ã 2012

This is a study of a local geographic landmark viewed from the shore across the bay.

The plate was constructed using torn paper, dried plant material, PVA glue, peeled away layers of paper from the mat board and acrylic gel medium. It was sealed with several layers of shellac.
I printed it with Akua carbon black intaglio ink and then added in colour using watercolour washes.