Gravure- the new Medium! Reception and Demonstration Re-cap

Gravure is a 19th century technique which proceeds photography. For the last ten years, this technique has experienced a revival by printmakers thanks to the ready availability of non-toxic light sensitive emulsions and plates. At New Grounds, we use KM plates for pad printing which are available from New Grounds, or from Takach Press, http://www.takachpress.com/.
Photographers use gravure to achieve the rich tonalities and detail found in the works of Stieglitz, while artists who like to draw use it as a substitute for lithography. During the July 3 reception, New Grounds artist Jessica Weybright demonstrated how to create a colorful gravure by combining positive and negative plates of the same image.

To make the gravure plates from photographs the artist prints a black and white transparency of the image on a good photo printer. This transparency, or photo positive, simulates the large scale negatives of early photography.

The plates that we use are coated with a positive light sensitive emulsion which means that the image has to be positive in order to create a print that looks like the original. By comparison, in traditional photography photographic paper is coated with a negative emulsion which means that it has to be exposed to a negative image in order to create a positive version. It sounds a lot more confusing than it is! Really! Well, just to stretch your brain a little further, Jessica also created a negative, or inverted image in photoshop which she uses to make the second plate. The negative image deposits inks in the areas that are left white in the positive plate. The processes of making the plates are not shown here. However, watch as Jessica prints her two plates on the same piece of paper to achieve a very colorful and abstract image.

Jessica begins by brayering red ink on the positive plate. She then uses a tarlatan (a heavily sized cheese cloth) to remove the excess ink from the plate. The plate is now ready to print. She repeats these steps with the negative plate which she inkes up in green.

The negative plate is printed first.

Here is the first state of the image. Great color!

Now Jessica takes the positive plate and places it on top of the print she just pulled. The plates we use are thin steel plates coated with polymer emulsion. They can be printed upside down which can be messy, but eliminates the need for a complicated registration sheet. The second plate is simply placed upside down into the image area of the first impression.


Here she goes running the plate through the press one more time! She removes the plate and voila – the finished print!



The final image.


The aftermath of printing in half an hour…

The reception for the gravure show went well; we had many artists and visitors. Adabel Allen had three pieces in the show and she manned the door for a large portion of the night (thanks!).

Tanya, Gallery and Workshop Assistant, and Jessica Weybright, Artist, were enjoying themselves throughout the night.



Jeff Simpson, Artist (and our photographer for the evening), is shown here standing by his infamous “The Spokestoaster is in Rehab” gravure print.



Tyler is the owner of one of these lovely little toasters!



Jacqui Lewnes, Artist, and former member Carrie Kaser who is now apprenticing at the Tamarind Institute of Lithography came to see the show and the demonstration!



Jacqui, Tyler, and Susan Reid, Matrix Artist, are having a blast!



Thank you to everyone who came to the opening! Let’s give a round of applause to our photographer, Jeff Simpson.

Gravure – the New Medium in Printmaking

Jorge Tristani
Anole on Ginger
Multiple Plate Gravure

It’s a photograph! It’s a lithograph! It’s digital art! Actually, the new gravure prints can look very much like either. This group show demonstrates the incredible versatility of this rediscovered medium which precedes photography. New work by Adabel Allen, Diane Alire, Suzanne Marshall, Karl Koenig, Jorge Tristani and others.

Exhibition dates: July 3 – August 1
(Early Bird Preview: May 31 – July 3)

Traveling Artists at Art Fairs!

Mary Sundstrom
"Brushstrokes"
16 x 16"
Monotype and Gravure



Ray Maseman
St. Michael
Multiple plate Etching
12 x 9"

If you are going to Madison, WI don't forget to stop by the "Art on the Square" Festival. This is happening July 11th and 12th. Ray Maseman and Mary Sundstrom will be there to show their wonderful art.

Ray Maseman will also be at the Midsummer Festival of the Arts in Sheboygan, WI on July 18th and 19th. He is the featured artist this year! We are so proud of Ray, congratulations!

Ray Maseman takes on St. Uriel!!!!

Archangel Uriel depicted as an elephant carrying eggs and, wait, is that an outhouse??? This quirky, tongue-in-cheek, yet thoughtful imagery simply oozes out the brain of New Grounds’ etcher Ray Maseman and continues to keep us entertained and, at times, scratching our heads.

“Stars of the Show”

Jeanette Cook and Carol Walker

Maseman is one of the several New Grounds artists represented in this show of “Realism in Printmaking” with artists from several continents as well as the different categories of realism from contemporary to magical and surreal. From left to right, New Grounds artists included Jeannette Cook, Carol Walker, Ray, Brian Giza. Joel Nowlin and Pamela DiMauro also have work in this show but could not make it to the reception.


As always, our reception was well attended. Gallery visitors spend a lot of time taking a close look at those highly detailed images, some of created by well known artists from Japan, France, Bulgaria and Mexico.


For those wanted to get their hands on the artwork, our “back room” was stuffed to the brim with more work!


For those of you, who like to find out more about printmaking, check out our demos which are held at 6:30 during First Friday Artscrawl receptions. For this show, Ray Maseman, with the assistance of his daughter Nora, showed us some of his tricks for printing his colorful etchings. The key to his images: 2 plates and several stencils for selected color!


For “St Uriel” Ray created his first plate, or “key” plate out of line etching (see description below) and the application of some aquatints (see description below); it defines the image and also contains most of the shading. This plate is inked up completely in sepia. The second plate was created mainly out of flat aquatints which are used to print the vivid background colors. This plate is inked and printed with several colors, a technique called “selective wiping.”

Place Demo 7, 9 and 10 here
Now that both plates are inked, Ray places the color plate on the press bed, printmaking paper is laid over the plate, and his daughter Nora runs the press for him!

Note: for printmaking paper we prefer Hahnemuhle, it is super absorbent and will pick up the slightest details and subtest gray values!


The paper is locked into position with a brick wrapped in newsprint. The paper is gently flipped over the brick, the color plate is exchanged for the key plate, and it is run again trough the press, this time with the assistance of Ray’s older daughter Meghan. Sorry, you have to bring your own kids if you want free help pulling prints at New Grounds….!!!!

Place Demo 13, 14 and 15 here
But we are not done yet! Two crucial elements, the elephant and the outhouse, are still missing from the picture. For those, Ray cut stencils out of Duralar. This is a plastic material perfect for this process. New Ground is a supplier for this stuff, by the way. It is soft enough that it can be cut easily with a scissors or x-acto knife, but stiff enough so it won’t curl around the brayer when it is inked – something mylar does. It is sturdy enough so it can be used multiple times – the stencil does not have to be re-cut for each impression. Ray inks the stencils with a brayer just as he would roll ink on a monotype plate.


The inked stencils are then picked up with a tweezers and carefully placed ink side down on the previously printed paper. To transfer the ink the paper together with the stencils have to be run through the press one more time (not shown here). Voila - the finished print! Awesome, Ray!!!!! Now, seriously, what IS the meaning of the outhouse?


All photos courtesy of Jeff Simpson who was filling in for Bruce Childs. Great job, Jeff!


Aquatint: This effect of this method produces solid areas of tone. The plate has to be covered at one point with very fine particles (traditionally rosin, at New Grounds Z-Acryl hard-ground is air-brushed onto the plate) so that the almost invisible openings between those particles can be etched. To the naked eye those tiny etched dots will appear as a gray tone. Shades of gray are achieved by altering the length of the etch; the longer the etch, the darker the tone will appear.

Line etching: In this technique the plate is covered with an acid resistant ground (at New Grounds we use Z-Acryl hard-ground), then worked with an etching needle to create an image. The thus exposed metal is then "eaten" in an acid bath such as Nitric Acid which today is considered “toxic” or an etchant such as Ferric Chloride which is used at New Grounds because it is “non-toxic”. Etching the drawn lines creates depressed areas that are inked and printed. Etching was developed during the 16th century, and started to replace engraving by the 17th century.

Non-toxic Photogravure/Solarplate-Etching

Jeff Simpson
The Spokestoaster is in Rehab
Gravure
3.5 x 3"

This four day workshop provides an exciting opportunity to create beautiful limited edition prints using two distinctly different methods. The first results in rich and detailed photographic images, the second is a great alternative to lithography for artists who love to draw! Students will work with high-quality water-based Akua-Kolor etching inks.

Class date: Tuesday thru Friday, July 14, 15, 16, and 17
Class time: 9 AM - 5 PM, includes lunch break
Class fee: $ 275 + tax, includes two small plates, and all printing materials. Additional plates are available.
Instructor: Diane Alire, MFA

Introduction to Monotype

This liberating medium combines painting and printmaking techniques. Monotypes are one of the most immediate forms of printmaking. You will be introduced to a variety of techniques from basic to experimental, and work with high-quality water-based Akua-Kolor monotype inks.

Class dates: Tuesday thru Friday Jun. 16, 17, 18, and 19
Class time: 9 AM - 5 PM, includes lunch break
Class fee: $ 275.00 + tax, includes all printing materials.
Paper needs to be purchased separately.
Instructor: Mary Sundstrom, MFA

New Grounds and Matrix Artists’ swept up a huge amount of purchase awards from the CABQ 1% for the Arts Program.

We want to give a round of applause to the artists’ whose work was chosen by the city. Artists’ represented by Matrix Fine Art include Sally Condon, Harriette Lawler, Katrina Lasko and Iva Morris. Chosen from New Grounds Print Workshop and Gallery were pieces by Diane Alire and Dan Noyes.
The City of Albuquerque's Public Art Program, one of the oldest in the country, began in 1978, with the passage of the Art in Municipal Places Ordinance. This bold initiative set aside 1% of City construction funds derived from the general obligation bond program and certain revenue bonds for the purchase or commission of works of art. (Read more about it at http://www.cabq.gov/publicart/about-1-for-art).