Gail Gallagher

On March 5, I attended PRINTAGANZA at The Church.

Master Printmaker, Dan Welden was our teacher.

Dan began our class by describing the print making process as artistic exploration, open, collaborative and gregarious in nature. He observed that print making and creativity in general bring contentment. He described his love for the unpredictable nature of print making and monotype as an original art form. Dan introduced us to his team of artists who would be assisting us in the printmaking process. They were incredible! The dozen artists who were taking the class then introduced themselves. It was interesting to meet everyone and hear about why each of them were in attendance. I will blame the pandemic and confess that I was the person in the group that overshared and had to get the "Oscar speech music" from Dan to move from me on to the next person.

🤣 🤣🤣🤣

Fellow attendee, Lori Hawkins with one of her amazing chine collé prints.

Each artist was set up with a glass with five oil based inks. Red, ultramarine, yellow, black and white. A pallet knife for mixing the ink and a soft rubber brayer. I didn't know what to expect, but I am now making a mental list of marking tools to bring to the next workshop. Each artist was also supplied with either 8" x 10" or 17" x 24" plexiglass plates to apply the ink to. We were also supplied with 11" x 15" and 22" x 30.7" sheets of prepared Hahnemühle paper. The artist assistants would place our painted plates on the press and pull the print through, rolling the wheel on the press towards the big reveal. We were allowed to create as many prints as time would allow on this beautiful paper! I created eight.

Artists lined up with their plates ready to be sent through the press.

Our pre-attendance guidelines wrote, "For those who will be experimental in their approach: there are no specific instructions other than creating an image with brush and ink, scraping tools, rags or your elbow on plexiglass with ink, just as you would paint."

"Sunset" Monotype
11" x 15"
Ink on Hahnemühle paper

For my first experiment in monotype, I rolled ink on two 8" x 10" plexiglass sheets with the brayer. One sheet more blues, the other with orange and red. I tried adding texture with my finger tips and paint brush. I didn't know what to expect. It was exciting to see the reveal when the paper came through the press. Food for thought on what I process I would use for creating the next print. Dan's advice, "If too much is going on, the technique dominates the image."

Sag Harbor sunset inspiration

"Evening Pool" Monotype
11" x 15"
Ink on Hahnemühle paper

"Sea Rise" Monotype

22" x 30.7"

Ink on Hahnemühle paper

"Spring" Monotype
11" x 15"
Ink and Caran d'Ache crayon on Hahnemuhler paper

"For those of you who want to bring a concept with you: it could be in the form of a reference drawing, photograph, sketch or even a painting to use as inspiration." I used a 10" x 10" oil painting from the January Challenge as my inspiration for "Tulipina".

"Tulipina" Monotype
11" x 15"
Ink on Hahnemühle paper

"Emergence" being prepared for impressing.

"Emergence" Monotype

22" x 30.7"
Ink and Caran d'Ache crayon on Hahnemühle paper

"Emergence"
as imagined by SMARTIST

"Submergence" 22" x 30.7" Monotype
Ink and Caran d'Ache crayon on Hahnemühle paper

"Submergence"

PRINTAGANZA lasted from 10am until 4pm. The day was truly satisfying. This introduction to monotype printmaking increased my desire to explore the process further. After two years of pandemic, it was a joy to create art in a room with other artists. I loved seeing what my fellow artists were creating and loved observing their process. It was SO COOL! Dan Welden is such a great teacher and his team of artist assistants were a joy to work with.