Printmaking Books

Some scans from a book that I recently had delivered to me by the Fife housebound library service. They come every 3 weeks and they also delivered another book which I had been trying to get hold of for the past 2 or 3 years. The edition had sold out. That was "Chine Colle" by Brian Shure which I am afraid was rather a disappointment and didn't tell me anything that I did'nt already know.......... bah. I mean it was not experimental in any way nor instructive. Basically you had printmaking onto a piece of lightweight paper the same size as your plate, and onto silk and how to make wheat paste. Oh and if using wheat paste you can pre-paste them, and then like stamps or envelope edges when you wet it it will stick to the paper - that actually could be quite useful if one were doing a large print with a large area of chine colle. i will have to see if that works in a similar way for rice paste which is what I use. I get it from Intaglio Printmakers in London. I empty it out into a glass jar so that I can see how much I am putting on my brush as if you use it from the tube you can tend to 'overuse' it and then become vulnerbale to having it slide as it goes through the press. Although if anything nowadays I am more inclined to under rather than over-paste !!.

Getting back to what I was saying about Brian's book - I suppose it's just that if I researched and authored a book on the uses of chine colle for printmakers - I would be endeavoring to offer a greater range of examples/ have it more up to date ( there was no mention of using inkjet at all, and this a book published in 2000) and for the publication to be inspiring.

Now both these books were brought to me by the mobile library on the same day and I would say that this book "Collagraph Printmaking" by Mary Ann Wenniger, originally published in 1981 was more useful and enlightening even though the photos were mainly in black and white. Very practical and instructive.
I mentioned this technique I read about in it which involved putting your plate into the freezer, to Jane Marshall when we were at the studio last week and here it is.

CLICK ON THE JPGS TO SEE THEM LARGER AND MAKE THEM READ-ABLE

Portugal Printmaking Postcard Project update

Portugal Printmaking Postcard Project update as mentioned in previous recent post


The image above is the contribution of Mirek Antoniewilz, a Polish artist. It's just interesting to be able to see what other artists have created and sent to this project. I sense that some artists are committed "mail artists" whilst others like myself and e.g. Raj Verdi (who I know of, through my involvement previously with the Printmakers Council) are printmakers who decided to participate. Sorry to say that my image on their is a bit "greyed out" i.e., it needs a bit more contrast !!......stuff like that really annoys me.
This is the link to Matriz's main website which is somewhat "Flash- tastic" and here's a link to the blog where they have posted the images until they get round to putting them on the main site.
Here's an image by Raj Verdi by the way.

NoToxico conference and exhibition MEXICO

I currently have work in this exhibition which is taking place in Nuevo Leon in Mexico.
I was rather late in getting my submission to them but was pleased to hear that four of my pieces had been selected. It was great to be able to do my submission by email and that it was OK to send them up to 15 images !!! I cant remember but don't think that there was an entry fee either.
I came across this website La Ruta dela Grafica.blogspot.com which I translated from the Spanish using Googles automatic translation facility so its a bit hit and miss although it gives the gist of the conference and theres a list of urls for further reference within the text.

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Below are some photos by a friend of a friend on Facebook (Ireri Topete) a fellow printmaker, who took some photos of the exhibition opening, when he accompanied her there - to see how they had hung her printmaking pieces in the exhibition. They both live in Mexico.

1st International Print Biennial - Istanbul 2008

Printmaking Exhibition in Turkey?!!...In fact the first time I had heard of any plaining my printmaking approach/process (attaching an example of my printmaking) and he said that as my works incorporated traditional techniques then I should certainly go ahead and submit some artworks. So I did. There was no particular theme either so that was additionally an inviting aspect. I sent the works


One drawback as far as I was concerned was ... that they had to be prints from an edition. So I entered three pieces (2 of each image). Given that I hardly EVER do edition-ed works these were (ironically) somewhat precious to me but I thought oh well if they are selected and exhibited and in the catalogue and then end up becoming part of their print collection....so be it - it will have been worthwhile. On the flip side I thought - if they’re not selected (not deemed suitable to be shown in their exhibition ........................then they wont want to hang on to them - I mean they will just return them.

So I sent the works off in time. I sent them to Istanbul Grafik Sanatlar Muzesi,
Unalan Mah. Barajyolu Sok. No 14, Uskudar TR-34700, Istanbul, Turkey.

The jurors who would be selecting the prints were: Elizabeth Ingram, Print Artist - Canada, Murside Icmeli, Print Artist - Turkey, Tetsuya Noda, Print Artist - Japan,
Suleyman Saim Tekcan, Print Artist, President of the IMOGA Executive Committee - Turkey and Hasip Pektas, Ex-libris Artist, President of Ankara Ex-libris Society - Turkey.
I received an email about 4 - 6 weeks later telling me that my works were disqualified because of being digital prints ...!!!!!!!.... I was (as you can imagine) pretty annoyed. I emailed a reply explaining how I had contacted Hasip and when they replied it was as if I had not mentioned that in my email. That is something that really annoys me. I mean you get this kind of "non response" when you deal with organisations like Amazon or Paypal but I expected better of this biennial. Anyway I also contacted Hasip and he responded in a likewise fashion as in a generalised non-specific response. Oh well I thought they will just return them. They never did though. As far as I am concerned those prints are now in their collection. They must have acquired a lot of prints this way.

A good friend of mine who I think makes excellent and beautiful work Elizabeth Omdahl, also entered and her work was also unselected - she also did not have her works returned. Her thought processes were along similar lines to mine, as in if they were not 'acceptable to display within the context of the exhibition then how could it be justified that the works were none the less 'good enough' to be acquired for their print collection. Elizabeth was good enough to write a letter (email) to Liz Ingram one of the jurors (who is a Canadian artist) and she responded sympathetically to our point of view and contacted the organizers who replied to her saying that they would be in contact with the 'unselected' artists, to discuss further action BUT they never did!! Further communications seemed futile as one never had any real acknowledgment that the iniquitous nature that this aspect of their rules/regulations implied.

None the less ............I did look through the website and was impressed by some of the works in the exhibition. I was surprised to see my old buddy Angelo Evelyn there with a lithograph of his that I'd not seen before. I sent Angelo one of my relief printed bear image Christmas cards but haven’t heard from him. He may have decided that he doesn’t want to bother to keep in touch. Having said hat I do actually have three framed pieces of his work upstairs in Charlie’s office - which he needs to collect sometime. I imagine all artists have a piece of work in another artist friends house that they will probably never get around to collecting!! I myself have a fairly large monoprint type work at Steve Williams house in London. I did try to get in touch with him several times whilst still in London. I even called around to his house in East Acton, one time (after going to visit the Orthopaedic consultant at Hammersmith Hospital) and was told by Celia, his partner, that the artwork had been moved along with a load of other stuff to his studio in Kilburn!! Steve wasn't there either. I seem to remember that she invited me in and I stayed a short while and had a cup of tea. I digress.............

So here are some images from the 1st International Print Biennial - Istanbul 2008 - I down loaded those that I liked for various reasons. Some for the image, some for the technique and what the artist has managed to achieve with it. If you click on the images ( as usual they become viewable larger and you will see the artists name). Also the heading on this post takes you to the IMOGA website where you can see all of the works in the exhibition. On that I congratulate the exhibition organizers. But mainly it's the artists who MAKE this project............its nothing without them, their hard work, their commitment............I feel that the least we deserve is to be treated with respect.

Exhibit a small print in Portugal (clo. 31 Mar 09)

Matriz – Printmaking Association of Porto calls for:1st Edition of postal print
Open to all print artists


Theme: Self-Portrait

Dimension: Standard postcard size– 10 x 15cm
Technique: all kind of prints except digital one


Deadline: 31st March 2009


Send only one postal print without envelope

No return, no fees, no jury
Exhibitions: on-line in www.matriz-gravura.com and
Esteta Gallery on April 2009
Send to: Matriz -1ªEdição de Gravura Postal, Rua Sousa Viterbo nº 28, 1ºA, 4050-593 – Porto, Portugal

With name, address and e-mail. Documentation sent to all by e-mail.

Information: matriz.gravura@gmail.com

(pictured above is the one I sent - it looks just like me don't you think !!)