New Year 2012

Highlights of the welcoming of the New Year 2012...............the markmaking of the unknown. These anonymous marks are they vandalism or the silent cry of the disaffected, the dissident, the disenfranchised?

Complimentary Colours 21st April has decided to be the 1 Jan 2012!

Op shop finds...knitting needles, wool remnants knitted into   juxtaposed with Katazome papers.

Egg in Antique Etching

 A friend bought for herself a beautiful book of  reproduction intaglio prints of birds. Flicking through the pages was a plate of an old breed of fowl with an egg. The detail in the straw around the egg was so beautifully rendered by the artist of another era, so inspiring.

Return to the NEST

Today when having a sort through one of my folios I found a drypoint etching from 1997 with a favourite motif, a NEST. It seems we return, loop, travel in circles! There seems repeating patterns in history as well as repeating patterns in our lives.  Round and round we go. It is always a comforting pattern though to return to the NEST!

Drypoint is a beautiful form of intaglio printmaking. Lines are drawn into metal or in this case a plastic with a sharp instrument. The plate is inked up and then cleaned and the ink stays in the grooves. The lines are 'soft' and some ink ( plate tone ) can be left on the plate before printing to create a more painterly effect to the finished print.

We will be doing a Summer School, Introduction to Printmaking, in January 2012. The drypoint technique will be covered, as well as techniques of relief printing. Printing, with and without a press will be explored in the workshop. There is a one day drawing class before the printing workshop with an emphasis on drawing approaches that link with printmaking.