Christine Herman delights in this newest body of work!

Christine created art for not only her first solo show at New Grounds; she also spent a lot of time preparing for the Affordable Art Fair in New York September 22-25!

You can see here that she is a prolific artist and she enjoys what she does!

Herman is ready to give her demonstration of a woodblock print and monotype combined. She has many tricks of the trade that she utilizes when creating her art work. It takes many years of practice to do what she does!

Herman starts by applying green ink with a brayer (like a roller) onto a thin sheet of polycarbonate.

She then finishes the top 2/3 of the plate by rolling yellow onto the plate

Now Herman gracefully carries her plate through the crowd to the nearby press!

She is now placing the paper on top of the inked plate while Kristen, Intern, is assisting with running the plate through the press. You can see Herman removing the paper from the plate which the ink has been transferred onto.

Now it's time to roll the ink onto the carved woodblocks. She is only applying ink to the surface of the block. The wood that has been carved away will not print. Herman also joins two woodblocks together by using masking tape to mask out areas she does not what the black ink to be on.

She then removes the tape and applies the maroon color to the edges.

Now she is ready to print. The blocks must be registered on top of the monotype that was already printed. This takes much concentration and precision.

And the final print!

Thanks to everyone who came out to the reception! Here are a few snapshots to share!
Christine Herman and Regina Held, Director

Mary Sundstrom, New Grounds Member and Teacher
Tanya and Richard Wolfson, poet
Nick Hudak, New Grounds Member

Thanks to Jeff Simpson for taking the photographs!

Jeff Simpson’s grand opening!

Jeff's black and white relief prints drew quite a crowd! His images are graphic yet whimsical in design. Jeff was delighted to have his first art opening at New Grounds! If you wanted to know what his work was about he didn't hesitate to talk about it. The atmosphere was cheerful and lively. Everyone who showed up this month seemed very pleased about the opening.











An impromptu fashion show happened just before the demonstration by the artist. An up and coming designer named Aspen Couture, came along with four models wearing her designs. This was a great chance for publicity.





I have worked at New Grounds for 3 years now and have not seen a completely relief print show! It was a pleasure to be at Jeff's opening. I have a passion for relief prints so it was nice to see them all in one room. At the demonstration Regina introduced Jeff donning his fashionable ladybug apron. It is an old family heirloom and he wore it just for this special occasion.






Jeff starts the demo off with an introduction to carving tools and how to use them.




Then he rolls on the ink with a brayer, using the Akua Intaglio Water-based inks. New Grounds is almost completely water-based these days! It is a big change from oil-based inks however they have beautiful results!





Once Jeff has rolled the plate through the press he shows the final image to the crowd.



Thanks to Michael Rudahl for the photographs!


Molly, our summer intern has gone back to college for the Fall! Thanks for all your help

Tanya

KARL KOENIG ONE MAN SHOW

The Albuquerque Photographers' Gallery is pleased to announce a one man show by Karl Koenig.

KARL KOENIG
"IN THIS PLACE..."
ONE MAN SHOW
GUMOILS
PHOTOGRAVURES

JULY 22 - LABOR DAY
RECEPTION FRIDAY, JULY 22ND
6 - 9:00 P. M.

Albuquerque Photographers' Gallery
303 Romero St. NW Ste N208
Plaza Don Luis
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87104
(505) 244-9195
www.abqphotographersgallery.com

The Albuquerque Photographers Gallery is the only cooperative art gallery in New Mexico dedicated solely to exhibiting and promoting contemporary fine-art photography by local photographers.

303 Romero St., Suite N208 Don Luis Plaza, Old Town, Albuquerque, NM
Content ©Albuquerque Photographers Gallery - All images © to the respective artists
www.abqphotographersgallery.com

Photography to Gravure

This group exhibition featured four photographers; Diane Alire, Karl Koenig, Rob Thalmann, and Jorge Tristani, who work in media ranging from silver gelatin photography to gumoil to gravure. This show included images in photography and their translation in gravure.


Diane and Jorge


Diane and Rob

At each opening we give a demonstration on one of the printmaking processes. Here is Diane Alire prepping for her demo.



In gravure, an image is generated by exposing a photo positive or transparency to a photo polymer plate via a high powered light. Artists need to do extensive testing to determine the exact exposing time for each image. The exposed plate is developed in water and can be printed almost immediately. Today, transparencies are computer generated and printed on inkjet printers which replace the large scale negatives used originally when the process was developed in the 19th century.

Diane’s image is created out two plates, one is the positive, the other is the negative of the same image. The positive will be printed in purple, the negative in yellow ochre. The printing is done as follows: First the plates are coved completely in ink using a brayer. The excess ink is removed using first a tarlatan (a very stiff cheese cloth) and then newsprint. The plates are ready for printing if only the recessed areas of the plate contain ink.













Diane first prints the negative plate. She places the plate on the press bed and places a sheet of Hahnemuhle printing paper on top of it. When she runs them trough the press, the ink is transferred to the paper.



After printing the first plate, Diane returns to ink the second or positive plate in purple. Here it is inked up and ready to go!





In order to print the second plate she places it upside down on top of the paper she just printed – this way she is very sure of her registration. The polymer plates are so thin that there is no loss of detail if the plate is printed upside down. Diane now runs the second plate through the press.







And – voila – we have a finished print.



If she was to create more impressions of this image she would have repeat the inking and printing process – these kind of old-fashioned printmaking processes are completely hand-made.

We had a good turnout for this show!





Thank you to all our volunteers and staff for your help. Jeff Simpson, photography!


Anise


Mary Sunstrom and Elena Betke-Brunswick