You Can Now Download My New Printmaking Master Classes Videos
Want to Take Your Prints to the Next Level?
After a summer’s work, the first five videos of my Printmaking Master Classes series of printmaking instruction videos are now online and ready to be downloaded. You can see trailers of all of the here below. I’m convinced that these videos will help you and thousands of other printmakers to take both their plates and their prints to the next level of expertise.
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Start Your Selection Process and Downloads Here
Here are the first seven preview videos of the Printmaking Master Classes series. To purchase the full version of any one of them just click the Add to Cart button beneath the preview and that will take you through the payment and download process. Thanks for looking at them.
Now Available: Two New Videos, “Traditional Printmaking 2″ and “Printmaking Tips”
Preview of Printmaking Tips Video
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Maureen presents a series of useful tips to make your studio a more pleasant and profitable place to work. She discusses press care, safety measures, deckle edges, solar-plate tips, tarlatan economy and much more. Putting all these tips into practice will make a significant improvement in you day-to-day working processes. Length: 24:32 Price: $19.95
Preview of Traditional Printmaking 2 Video
This video picks up where Traditional Printmaking 1 leaves off. It deals with aquatint, sugar lift and marbling. An artist who masters the techniques that Maureen explains on the two Traditional Printmaking videos should be able to produce exhibition-quality prints. Length: 26:58 Price: $19.95
Preview of Liquid Metal Printmaking Video
A curious technique which uses a plumbers’ epoxy adhesive to create wonderful relief plates. Video includes creating plate and creative printing techniques, including a ghost print. Length: 27:36 Price: $19.95
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Preview of Creative Printing Video
How many of your plates have seen their perfect print? This video will give you a fresh take on printing. Includes lots of different ways to print copper, zinc and solar plates with chine collé, rainbow rollups, and reserves. How to achieve a multi-color, multi-level print from a single plate. Length: 22:38 Price: $19.95
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Preview of Making a Chop Video
Do all of your final prints bear your chop? Maybe you need Maureen to show you how to make and use one. Your chop lends charm, authenticity and your own personal “logo” to every print. Length: 13:41 Price: $9.95
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Preview Solar Plate Printmaking Video
This video has Maureen’s personal take on how to make better solar-plate prints. The secrets are in the original. Includes cutting and preparing plates, making negative relief and positive intaglio plates, printing tips and care of plates. Length: 24:50 Price: $19.95
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Preview of Traditional Printmaking 1 Video.
This video covers best practices in hard-ground and soft-ground acid etching. Traditional Printmaking 2 (coming soon) will deal with aquatint, sugar lift and marbling. Includes soft-ground recipe, and printing with reserves. Video presents a succession of state proofs for both techniques. Length: 31:04 Price: $19.95
Donating an Artist’s Book to the Jaffe Collection
I’ve been a fan of Dot Krause and her work for years, and her recent incorporation into Facebook makes it a lot easier to keep tabs on her. It was there that I learned of her current residency at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. From her ongoing reports from the Jaffe Center it seems that Dot is in her element there teaching some workshops and creating an artist’s book entitled “River of Grass.” Read more…
Fancy a Printmaking Residence in Finland This Fall?
Follow this link to the Jyvaskyla Centre for Printmaking and apply before May 31, 2012. Good luck! Read more…
The Story of This Print: “El Patio del Harem”
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Back at the Alhambra
I’ve started on a series of medium-sized liquid-metal prints on Alhambra themes. Granada’s medieval fortress and palace has been for centuries a source of inspiration for artists, writers and photographers, so much so that today it’s difficult to get an original take on it. This time I’m relying on the inherent looseness of the liquid-metal technique to try to achieve Alhambra images with some originality.
I had one of those wonderful printmaking experiences at the beginning of this project. The first proofs I pulled from the first plate, El Patio del Harem, looked frankly great and I thought, “This is it, I’ll print up an edition.” But before I could start, I took a close look at one of the plates from which I had just pulled a proof. In the ink residue left on the plate I could still see beautiful detail. So I rubbed a light layer of yellow ink into it, rolled some fresh silver ink on top and put it back through the press, making a “ghost print.” I was shocked to see how superior the ghost was to the live one. I have placed the original print at the top of this post, the ghost below. See if you don’t agree with me.
This print was done with liquid metal on an old, previously-etched copper plate, a still life with fruit. I put the cold solder on with a palette knife and when it was still quite sticky I drew into it with a stylus. I didn’t press any texture elements into it until about an hour and a half later. I left it overnight to harden and printed it on 600 gr. handmade paper. The ghost print was printed on 375 gr. Paperki handmade paper. I like this one better.
Cathy Naro Has Found the Liquid-Metal Solution for the USA
Cathy Naro reviewing her prints with Maureen during her workshop last spring
In my Liquid Metal Printmaking video I use a two-tube epoxy adhesive (“cold metal solder”) called “Nural 21″ sold by a Spanish firm call Pattex. As it turned out, this product is not available in the U.S.A. and some American artists have been frustrated trying to find a suitable substitute. Now Cathy Naro has found it. I’ll let her tell you about it:
The product I’ve bought (at a local hardware store when I asked the manager for a product that I described according to my experience with Maureen) is called “J-B Marine Weld” (made in USA PO Box 483 Sulphur Springs, TX 75483 phone 1-800-529-3530). Read more…
The Story of This Print: “Grapes for Claudio” / “Uvas para Claudio”
In 2009 our son Bill and his wife Victoria adopted a two-and-a-half-year-old boy from an orphanage in Madagascar. We picked them up from the Granada airport when they arrived back with Claudio, after a two-month get-to-know-each-other period on the island. Claudio was in Bill’s arms with his hand stuck reassuringly in his new father’s shirt.
On his first visit to our house Claudio was taken with the bunches of ripe grapes hanging from the vines over our terrace. He stretched and fretted until Bill lifted him up to pick some, and Claudio stuffed his little cheeks full. There was so much joy in that image in my mind’s eye that I made an etching of the grape arbor. It’s called “Grapes for Claudio.”
Claudio is now four. He speaks Spanish like a four-year-old Granadino, and loves to paint.
This is a relief acid etching worked on a 15 x 30 cm. zinc plate. I first varnished
the plate then did all the line work. The nitric acid (28%) was diluted12:1.
Then I cleaned the plate and painted all the images with covering varnish, and
left it to harden overnight. Next day I put the plate in a stronger acid bath,
and left it for a couple of hours, wiping away the bubbles frequently with
a feather, so as to keep the lines clean. There is no aquatint on this plate.
The stronger acid makes an interesting background. Then I printed it a la
poupé on hand made cream-colored Arpa paper. The little birds are painted
on with watercolor after the print is pressed.
Consider the Luxury of Collaborative Printmaking
One Plus One Equals Three Point Five
We usually think of fine-art printmaking as a solitary endeavor, and until recently it has been that for me. But after years of yearning I finally got my Gallinero artists’ residence built, my husband Mike did a terrific job of introducing it on Internet, and artists started coming from all over the world. Most of them arrived by themselves to work together one on one. This was a relatively new experience and it has opened my eyes to new ways of working and new joys in printmaking.
I have done a lot of workshops, both in my studio here in Granada and around the rest of Europe, and always enjoyed the experiences. But there’s no denying that to work along with another artist is something different, a luxury for both. Clearly, two heads are better than one. Then there’s the mutual understanding which the Spaniards call “compenetración.” Working together intensely establishes a joyful dynamic where images and ideas get bounced around , and suddenly creative things begin to happen. Read more…
A Quick Look at Granada in a One-Minute Tourist Office Video
Wondering what Granada has to offer visitors. Here’s a quick overview:
