Rediscovering printmaking

Lately it seems that I've been taking the quick and easy way to share what I've been up to, via Instagram. That's great, but then I realized that my own blog was feeling left out of the fun. So I'll try to be better about posting here where things can be archived! 

I've been playing around with monotype printmaking quite a bit lately. I took intaglio printmaking in college, and because of that I'm able to identify different types of prints when I see them in museums--but without an etching press and all the trappings of a proper print studio at home, intaglio is not really very accessible. Monotype and collograph, on the other hand, are more flexible for the home studio and don't require a printing press capable of a lot of pressure (and even small tabletop printing presses are rather expensive). They can be printed by hand with a baren, print frog, rolling pin, or even a spoon! I'll share images of some great products that I've found to make printing easier, and affordable. 

Last fall I was lucky enough to take a workshop with Dawn Emerson, whose book Pastel Innovations is a wonderful resource and inspiration for using pastels in new and exciting ways. (Click on the title to go to the book's entry on Amazon.) I highly recommend it!! Usually, in a workshop, you don't do much good work. You're too busy learning and trying things, stretching, struggling and not having time to finish anything. You might get a few pieces done, and maybe one you're not planning to toss in the trash when you get home. But at Dawn's workshop, the room was full to bursting with great work! It was fast, loose, a little messy, expressive, creative and fun! We all went home ready to roll up our sleeves and make messes in our own studios...aaaand then the holidays hit, the cold set in, there were precious few hours of daylight to do anything at all, and we just wanted to sleep. Well, I did anyway. But now that I'm crawling out from under my winter blanket, I've pulled out the messy creative stuff again. :-) 

Dawn (in the black apron) surveying the creative mess at the Falmouth Art Center, October 2018. :-)

Dawn is demonstrating a monotype process, and how she adds pastel over the print later.

Here's one of the prints I did in the workshop, which is technically a collograph because I put a leaf and a vine on the plate, adding dimension above the surface. This created an embossed image in the paper as well as the inked image.

Here's the finished print with pastel added.

Super fun stuff, no? While I do believe in the value of drawing, planning a painting, thumbnails and notans, etc., it's so freeing to occasionally just mess around and see what happens! Monotype printmaking is a great way to get an image to start with, whether you keep working in ink or add pastel, paint, wax, or whatever else on top. I'm kind of on a roll with this stuff, so I'll post more as soon as I can!