Kingston School of Art
  • Home
  • Juried Exhibition 2020
  • Art Courses & Private Lessons
  • PA Days, Camps, Workshops
  • Community Art Studio
  • Window Art Gallery
  • Material Lists
  • Paint the Town!
  • KSOA Blog
  • About the KSOA
    • General Information
    • Office Hours
    • Contact Us
    • KSOA Policies
    • Volunteering at the KSOA
    • Models
    • About our Instructors
    • Donations
    • Survey
  • PA Days, Camps, Workshops

HOT OFF THE PRESS! (redux)

11/4/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
​This month, once again, the WAG provides a venue for the work of printmakers with very different aesthetics. 
​
As I look at the exhibition I’m struck by how every back wall dedicated to a single artist tells a story. Wendy Cain evokes sea- and landscapes by combining paper pulp printing with screen printing to produce textured, tonal images in black and white with distinct focal points. The stars of Rebecca Cowan’s drypoint prints are ordinary objects such as shoes and upholstered chairs. Margaret Bignell explores texture and movement in her monotypes with string and coarsely woven scraps of fabric. Barb Carr’s monotypes—contemplative landscapes—contrast sharply with those of Fanny Cecconi, which explode with colour. ​Closer to the front of the gallery Elizabeth Pulker’s series of six collages juxtaposes flat black with cut-out printed elements to create compositional variety.

Picture
Picture
While the WAG showcases framed prints by these and other artists—works that also include collographs, nature prints on fabric and relief prints—in the KSOA front studio I witness works in progress by some of the artists in the show. The Friday morning printmaking open studio is in full swing and five artists are spread around the room, working on ideas for monotypes and linocuts.

​Someone has brought in a paper wasp’s nest, which Fanny finds intriguing. She also has her eye on a piece of raffia that could add interest to a small abstract print, which she has already given a number of passes through the press. Barbara Morrow (who has not participated in the current exhibition) is working with Softoleum, a form of lino. While Margaret, the studio co-ordinator, offers her suggestions, Barb gives me a synopsis of a technique she is enjoying—reductive linocut, also called Kamikaze linocut because the final plate, which supports the final colour (there can be as many as five press passes), is mostly cut away. As an aside, she tells me, “You know, the Softoleum is easy to work with but too soft to be put through the press; the paper has to be burnished.” Meanwhile, Jane Hamilton-Khaan is puzzling over rubber overlays that she will use for successive colour applications to create her monotype.
Picture
​“J’adore!” pipes up Fanny, overcome with enthusiasm for the printmaking process. The atmosphere here is congenial and relaxed. The studio is a space for exchanging ideas, fixing accidents when they happen, trying new techniques and, of course, making use of the presses. Some of the artists in the WAG show have their own press, but for those who don’t, the printmaking open studio provides access to this large, expensive piece of equipment.
“The KSOA also has a printmaking archive,” Margaret reminds us. The archive acts as a resource for the student artists at the school. Margaret brings out an example of a drypoint and before long we are discussing the difference between a chop and a stamp, two forms of print identification, the former an embossing tool, the latter an inked tool. 

Picture
​Then a lively discussion ensues about the difference between a monoprint and a monotype. A monotype is unique. It begins with a smooth plate, usually Plexiglass, to which coloured inks have been applied with a roller. The plate may undergo successive press passes as new colours are added or scraped away, or as colours are blocked. The results can be unexpected. A monoprint, on the other hand, is pulled from a plate with a matrix or underlying image (like a linocut, or woodcut, or etching) that allows the printmaker to be faithful to the image with each pass. But, if the artist decides to vary the colours, a series using the same image can be created. Each print is still a monoprint.
“I think I’ve got it straight,” says Fanny while Margaret goes back to her spot at the table to continue work on a monotype she started earlier.

​Kingston Printmakers are Margaret Bignell, Wendy Cain, Barb Carr, Fanny Cecconi, Rebecca Cowan, Kym Fenlon-Spazuk, Judith Gould, Jane Hamilton-Khaan and Elizabeth Pulker.

Hot Off the Press continues until Sunday, November 24, with a reception on that day from 2 to 4pm.
Picture
0 Comments

    Author

    Ulrike Bender

    Archives

    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    August 2014

    Categories

    All
    Events

    RSS Feed

647a Princess @ Victoria, Kingston, On K7L 1E4 * 613-549-1528 * ksoa@kingston.net
  • Home
  • Juried Exhibition 2020
  • Art Courses & Private Lessons
  • PA Days, Camps, Workshops
  • Community Art Studio
  • Window Art Gallery
  • Material Lists
  • Paint the Town!
  • KSOA Blog
  • About the KSOA
    • General Information
    • Office Hours
    • Contact Us
    • KSOA Policies
    • Volunteering at the KSOA
    • Models
    • About our Instructors
    • Donations
    • Survey
  • PA Days, Camps, Workshops