Holiday Sale and Reception Fun!

Prints, prints, and more! Galore! What a lovely evening we had at this year’s opening with thousands of prints, paintings, and photographs for sale! Low prices too ($25 to $125).





This is a great time to see what the artist’s have been creating all year, and those years past! We had a good crowd for this opening and plenty of cream puffs to go around!






Bruce Childs and Mary Zaremba came to visit and to spread the holiday cheer!



Nick Hudak is one of New Grounds newest members who recently moved to Albuquerque from New York. He is enjoying learning the non-toxic etching method that we do here. Here is Tanya and Nick looking at Ray Maseman’s new batch of cards!



Ray Maseman is listening intently to what this woman is saying!



George Bair and his wife Mary came all the way from Kansas to be here for the “Perception” group show.




Shirley Levy and Mary

Here is his newest etching. This took him 200 hours to complete! It’s a beauty.



Laura Wacha made this awesome paper mache sculpture just for the holiday sale. It is called “Thirsty Dog”!




Thanks to all the volunteers that helped with this month’s reception and to Jeff Simpson for taking the photographs!

Pamela DiMauro’s multi-plate etchings and gravures give life to the gallery!

Pamela DiMauro has created etchings of plants that are layered with abstract backgrounds, and colors that are not always literal. In these, multiple phases of the plants life are viewed simultaneously. Each print is like a portrait of the botanical, capturing its personality.




DiMauro was kind enough to demonstrate the etching process during her reception. Etching is part of the intaglio family of printmaking techniques. What they all have in common is that the design is below the plate surface.







To begin with, the blank copper plate is coated with an acid resistant material called hard ground. At New Grounds, we use Z-Acryl hard ground which does not require any harmful solvents to be removed from the plate. Instead, it is water-soluble when wet, and comes off with a mild soda ash solution when dry. A design is now drawn on the coated plate (not shown here) which exposes the copper underneath. It is made permanent by immersing the plate in ferric chloride – it literally etches the drawn lines into the plate.





The plate is now ready to be printed. To do so, ink (at New Grounds we use water soluble Akua intaglio inks) is carded over the entire plate with strips of mat board.








Once the plate is covered completely in ink, the excess is removed first by using strips of mat board and then a very stiff cheese cloth called “tarlatan.” To remove any excess plate tone, newsprint is used to wipe it off the surface.






The inked plate is now placed on the press bed, and it is covered with a sheet of printing paper. At New Grounds, we prefer Hahnemuhle paper because it is extremely absorbent.

Plate and paper are then covered with printing blankets which cushion the impact of the roller as the plate and paper are moved through the etching press. Note that the only purpose of the press is to apply very high pressure to the plate. We use Takach presses at New Grounds.







Now, Pam returns to repeat the steps above with the second plate which is being printed in an orange color.











The finished print!



Here are some clients who were admiring her finished piece. Thanks to everyone who made it out tonight and especially to the volunteers who helped make this show a success!



Joe Montano our newest intern



If you missed the reception, Pamela DiMauro’s show “Conservatory” runs through November 27th.
www.newgroundsgallery.com

Thanks!
Regina Held, Director

Photogravure with Karl Koenig

Deborah Donelson is back!

We are excited to announce that Donelson's works on paper are once again available at New Grounds. Check out our fresh inventory of her hand-colored gravures.

Jorge Tristani’s “Paradise” and Mizraim Cardenas “Morelos: Estampas de la Independencia”

This month’s reception was another huge success. With not just one, but two solo shows hanging, a few hundred visitors, and several sales, who could ask for more? Mizraim Cardenas sent us a portfolio of twenty engravings which commemorate Mexico’s 200th anniversary of their independence. New Grounds feels honored to show his exceptional and detailed work.


Mizraim Cardenas- Engravings


Jorge had a good turnout with many friends and family to join in the celebration of his second solo show at New Grounds!




Jorge and Sarah Anderson


Jorge gave a demonstration on a gravure process in which he printed a positive and negative version of the same image on top of each other. The result is a very painterly image quite different from printing just a single plate image.
First, the photographic image is adjusted in Photoshop so that it can be properly exposed to the light sensitive polymer plates used for this process. Then, a transparency is printed on an inkjet printer. He had to print two separate transparencies to create this image; one a positive and one a negative.




The transparency is then exposed to the light sensitive polymer-coated steel plate in a light unit. The polymer hardens and holds the ink that is wiped on the plate much like an etching. For this particular two plate process, the negative plate is printed in a lighter color so that it fills in the negative areas on commonly left white when the positive plate is printed. The positive plate is printed last and in a darker color.



Jorge’s mom even came out to see the demonstration and his show.





Once the ink is rolled or applied on the plate a tarlatan (a heavily sized cheesecloth) is used to wipe the plate to remove any excess ink. Newsprint is used to wipe any plate tone that may be left on the plate. The edges are then cleaned off with a q-tip as shown here.




It is best to have both plates inked and ready to go before running through the press. Here is Jorge inking up the second plate.



Now Jorge is registering or lining up his plate in the right place on the press bed. It is important that the plates are cut to the exact size so they line up perfectly on the sheet of paper.



Printing…



Now Jorge is registering the second plate on top of the first image that he just printed.



Printing…



And here is the final image



We just want to say thank you to everyone who came to the opening and to all those who volunteered!

Michael Rudahl was the photographer for the evening- Thank you!