This workshop is full. Please email or call if you wish to be placed on a wait list.
In this two-day workshop students will learn the art of photopolymer gravure printing. Using light-sensitive steel-backed Solarplates, participants will create 4″ x 5″ and 6″ x 8″ gravure etching prints from their photographs. This environmentally friendly process translates photographic detail into ink on paper with unparalleled beauty.
No prior experience with printmaking is required. All necessary aspects of printmaking will be discussed including choosing inks, papers, and wiping material. Wiping and inking techniques will be covered. Be prepared to marvel at the way your photograph is transformed through ink on paper.
The making of digital positives will be discussed, but for the workshop itself, you will send color or black and white image files (300 dpi at 10” on the long side) to be made into a digital positive prior to the workshop. An email with details will be provided once you are registered. Please submit a WORKSHOP SIGN UP FORM located below so we are able to contact you!
Here is a brief outline of the process that will be presented in this workshop:
A transparency positive will be made from your photograph
The positive is then placed on top of the light sensitive polymer plate and exposed to UV light
Washing the plate in water etches the image onto the plate
Once hardened, the plate is hand inked using water-soluble intaglio inks
The inked plate is then run through an etching press onto dampened paper
Remnants #202, Karen Hymer
About Karen Hymer
Karen Hymer is an artist and educator based out of Silver City, New Mexico. For the past seven years she has ventured into the world of printmaking – exploring imagery in the form of photopolymer gravures. Her current work explores the effects of time on the human body and various plant life. Hymer’s richly detailed photogravures emphasize the interplay of texture, pattern, light and shadow in muted earth tones. The decontextualized close-ups of the body and decaying plants reveal a poetic beauty in these often over-looked subjects.
Please complete this workshop sign up form before payment! This helps us stay in contact with you as well as update you with any information you may need before the workshop.
This one day workshop of photopolymer gravure making was packed full of eager to learn students. This trial-and-error process allowed students to created magnificent and unique prints that captured the eye.
This alternative printmaking process translates photographic detail into ink on paper, allowing for more creative freedom, and resulting in unparalleled beauty.
Photogravure Learn the art of photopolymer gravure printing in this one-day workshop! Using light-sensitive steel-backed Solarplates, participants will create 4 x 5 gravure etching prints from their photographs. This environmentally friendly process translates photographic detail into ink on paper with unparalleled beauty.
No prior experience with printmaking is required. All necessary aspects of printmaking will be discussed including choosing inks, papers, and wiping material. Wiping and inking techniques will be covered. Be prepared to marvel at the way your photograph is transformed through ink on paper!
The making of digital positives will be discussed, but for the workshop itself, please send one color or black and white image file (300 dpi at 10” on the long side) to be made into a digital positive prior to the workshop. An email with details will be provided once you are registered.
All materials for this workshop are included in the registration fee.
Here is a brief outline of the process that will be presented in this workshop:
Starting with your digital photograph, a 4 x 5 transparency positive will be made
The positive is then laid on top of the light sensitive polymer plate and exposed to UV light
Washing the plate in water etches the image onto the plate
Once hardened, the plate is hand inked using water-soluble intaglio inks
The inked plate is then run through an etching press onto dampened paper
You take home 3 photogravure prints of your image
About Karen Hymer For the past five years Karen Hymer, an artist and educator based out of Silver City, New Mexico, has ventured into the world of printmaking – exploring imagery in the form of photopolymer gravures. Her current work explores the effects of time on the human body and various plant life. Hymer’s richly detailed photogravures emphasize the interplay of texture, pattern, light and shadow in muted earth tones. The decontextualized close-ups of the body and decaying plants reveal a poetic beauty in these often-over-looked subjects.
Get back in the studio and practice your skills! If you have taken a Photogravure workshop at Art Intersection or are proficient in the process, you are invited to participate in an Open Studio day dedicated to photopolymer gravure. Please note, this is not a workshop; while you are encouraged to share knowledge with your studio mates, there will be no formal instruction.
If you are not familiar with the photopolymer gravure process, learn it the day before in our workshop with Karen Hymer! Find out more and register here.
Materials Pricing
The $40 registration fee includes your access to our lab and equipment during the Open Studio. You are welcome to bring all your own materials and pay no additional fee. However, Art Intersection will have 4×5″ SolarPlates available for $8 each, paper and ink available for $5/print, and digital negatives for $5 each – this is a great option for those just starting out with photogravure, or those that don’t want to invest in their own materials yet. These additional items will be accounted for at the end of the day.
Working Group
In addition to the open lab, the day will start at 9am with a Photogravure Working Group meeting. This is an opportunity to meet other photogravure printers, reconnect with friends from workshops, and share some work you’ve done already. This meeting will last no longer than an hour, but may be briefer depending on the discussion. Art Intersection hosts Working Group meetings and Open Studios on a recurring basis.
Late last month we had the pleasure of hosting a Platinum/Palladium workshop in our Photographic Arts Lab led by San Francisco-based artist Michael T. Puff! A master of this luminous, tonally-rich process, Michael led our eleven participants in making gorgeous prints of their own images.
Platinum/Palladium printing, a photographic process invented in the 19th century, has long been a favorite of alternative process photographers for its highly archival nature and infinite variations of gray tones as highlights shift to shadows. In the process Michael uses, ferric oxalate, palladium, and sodium chloroplatinate are mixed together, hand-brushed onto 100% cotton rag paper, exposed to UV light through a digital negative, and then processed with potassium oxalate and sodium thiosulfate. The end result is a handcrafted print that is estimated to retain its appearance for a thousand years!
Thank you to all of our wonderful participants, and of course to Michael for traveling to us to share his expertise!
Michael instructs the class on mixing the chemicals and coating their paper
The participants mark where the image portion of their digital negatives will be centered on their paper
After exposing a coated piece of paper to UV light, Michael demonstrates developing the print
Participants process their exposed prints
Cyd looks at the class’s finished work at the end of the day
Gorgeous work produced by the students pinned up on the critique board
Michael talks about successes and things to work on with the students
Beautiful work by Lloyd Matthews
Luminous prints by Deb Alberty
A delicate, icy print by our very own Business Manager, Debra Wilson!
This past Saturday, March 26 we had the pleasure of hosting a Photogravure workshop taught by Tucson artist Karen Hymer! The weekend began with a lecture by Karen on Friday night – she talked about the history of photogravure and the evolution of her artwork as she continues to use the process.
Seven students joined us for the workshop and got hands-on experience making photopolymer plates from their images, then pulling prints from the plates. Karen taught the process using Solarplates, which are steel plates coated with a light-sensitive polymer emulsion. When exposed, the polymer hardens; the unexposed polymer washes away in water, leaving an “etched” plate ready for inking after the plate has dried in the sun. Ink is then applied to the plate and wiped from the highlight areas. Finally, paper is laid on top of the plate and both are run through an etching press.
We are forever grateful to our friends at Cattletrack Arts Compound and Santo Press for lending us their etching press – we could not have done this workshop without their help!
Karen demonstrates the “development” of the Solarplate in water
Exposed and developed plates harden in the sun
Karen demonstrates inking the plate
Participant Shari Trennert prepares to run her plate through the press
Shari has made a print from a “test strip” plate to check her exposure before committing to a full plate
Jean-Charles Chapuis, Cyd Peroni, Tom Moore, and Gina DeGideo hard at work inking their plates
Chris Palmer and Karen compare a test print with another print of the same image to check for contrast and density
Gina uses a cotton swab to fine-tune her ink application
Cyd lays a sheet of fine-art water color paper over her inked plate before running it through the press
Participants enjoy letting their creativity run free and working in a community environment
Participants let their finished prints dry before taking them home
Art Intersection is pleased to present a unique exhibition of traditional and contemporary printmaking. This art form consists of the production of images, usually on paper but occasionally on fabric, parchment, plastic, or other support, by various techniques of multiplication, usually involving a press, under the direct supervision of or by the hand of the artist. Such fine prints are considered original works of art, even though they can exist in multiple copies.
This printmaking exhibition showcases work from three generations of master printmakers, all living and working in the greater Phoenix Metropolitan area, and the work from their studios with three distinctly different visions. The featured printmakers, John Armstrong, Brent Bond, and Jacob Meders, all function as artists, creating their own unique work, and as master printers collaborating with other artists in the production of limited print editions.
John Armstrong, the most senior of the three masters, has collaborated with and printed for many esteemed artists including Philip Curtis, Martin Mull, and Dorothy Fratt. John, along with his wife, Joan Prior, have operated Armstrong-Prior, Inc., a print studio and fine art consulting and brokering establishment for over 30 years. John’s own work, along with the work of artists he has worked with, have been extensively exhibited and collected and are in many prestigious private and public collections including the Phoenix Art Museum and Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.
Brent Bond, a mid-career artist, has exhibited his mixed media work for over two decades. His own publishing company, Santo Press, founded in 2009, focuses on small scale, high quality, limited edition relief prints, monoprints, and monotypes, by regionally and nationally recognized artists like Teresa Villegas, Veronica Villanueva, and Carolina Escobar. Prior to opening his own studio, Brent served as a Master Printer and Studio Manager at Segura Publishing Co., from 2004 – 2013, where he collaborated with many esteemed artists including, Luis Gonzalez Palma, William Wegman, and James Turrell.
Jacob Meders, a member of the Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria, California, is a recent MFA graduate in printmaking from Arizona State University. His own creative work, along with the work from his print studio, Warbird Press, focuses on issues specific to indigenous cultures, specifically, Native Americans. Jacob has shown recent work at Gallery 31 at the Corcoran, Washington DC, and The Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.
Image “Pandora Encounters Narcissus” by Brent Bond
