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Solarplate Success

5/8/2018

What a great weekend retreat! Three days of learning and creating is good for the soul.

I learned how to create a solar plate by exposing a film positive in a special light box (timing is everything!) I refreshed my memory on how to ink and print an etching (clean the edges of the plate and clean your hands!) I enjoyed the camaraderie of working with and learning from other professional printmakers (how did you do that??)

And I was inspired to take this new technique into my studio and play with new ways of image making and layering. This photo shows a combination print of a large monoprint, layered with my solar plate etching. The solar plates are so thin that you can layer both plates at the same time on the press.

Big thanks to my generous and talented teacher, Rosemary Cooley, and the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland. I look forward to taking another class there!

Here's an etching made from a solarplate that combines my photograph of clouds and my own handwriting. I wrote on the clear film positive with a waxy Stabilo pencil which could be exposed in reverse. The quote is from a poem by Pablo Neruda.

Printmaking is 2 parts planning and 1 part surprise!

My talented new friend John Tochko is a brilliant watercolor sketcher and a sailor. He turned a photocopy of his watercolor painting into a lovely etching.

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Here comes the SUN!

5/3/2018

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my woodblock print of the sunshine over North Carolina mountains

I'm thrilled to be heading out to the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland on a three-day art retreat this weekend! I'll be learning "Solarplate Intaglio Printing" with artist Rosemary Cooley and staying in a cosy bed & breakfast. Woo Hoo!

According to the Solarplate website, this etching plate is "a light sensitized steel backed polymer material used by artists as an alternative to hazardous printing techniques. It is a simple, safer, and faster approach than traditional etching and relief printing. It does not use grounds, acids or solvents. It is exposed with U.V. light (the sun) and developed with ordinary tap water."

So etching and intaglio printing without the chemicals - what's not to like?

We were asked to bring black and white images on clear transparency sheets which will be used in exposing the plate. I copied some of my photographs and a page of text to try. Then I played with drawing and painting directly onto the transparencies - WOW! I can't wait to see how all of these look as etchings - and to figure out how I can use them as layers in my mixed media printmaking work.