Art Patronage and Master Printing At New Grounds - Desert Triangle Print Carpeta: Ruben Urrea Moreno

A work by Tucson artist Ruben Urrea Moreno printed at New Grounds
 by master printer Ren Adams

Art Patronage is not dead!

Granted, it is hard to find a patron the likes of the Medici family in 15th and 16th century Italy, who commissioned copius works of art from local artisans, and the U.S. lags way behind in supporting the arts compared to European countries, but there are exceptions.

Karl Whitaker, an avid print collector, is in the process of commissioning 30 prints by 30 contemporary southwest artists. The collection will tour as a traveling exhibition when complete.

New Grounds was fortunate enough to be chosen to print a work by Tucson artist Ruben Urrea Moreno, as part of Whitaker's project. The large-scale woodcut was editioned in September by New Grounds master printer Ren Adams.

New Grounds provides custom printing services to artists, curators and patrons of the arts, and we often have a master printer  working on an edition or series in our main studio. It's one of the many services New Grounds offers and our custom printers are respected and skilled across various printmaking techniques, including etching, gravure, relief and serigraphy (among others!).

If you're interested in having pieces printed at New Grounds, don't hesitate to contact us to discuss options!

Whitaker's commissioned project is impressive! You can read more about the piece printed at New Grounds (and about the project's larger vision at: Desert Triangle Print Carpeta: Ruben Urrea Moreno).

Moreno's piece during the duration process

Ren Adams aligns the block before printing

Ren Adams' workstation, inking the block

The main printing studio at New Grounds, with Moreno's block on our big press

Desert Triangle Print Carpeta: Ruben Urrea Moreno

Desert Triangle Print Carpeta: Ruben Urrea Moreno: Ruben Urrea Moreno from Tucson, did his print at New Grounds Print Workshop and Gallery in Albuquerque; Ruben Urrea Moreno  cr...

Brian Giza Etching Demo

Brian Giza

 In August, New Grounds Gallery presented Body and Movement - Etchings by Brian Giza.

During the exhibition opening, Brian provided a live demonstration of his dry point techniques, plus details on his process, his combination of various traditional and non-traditional approaches to etching, and his creative use of fascinating tools to produce his fresh, figurative works. Best of all, Brian goes into detail about why he draws and the idea behind his sensitive portraiture.

If you missed the original demo, or have been dying to see it again, you're in luck! We've finished the demo video and it is now available on YouTube:

Brian's inking station for the demo

New Grounds Print Workshop and Gallery YouTube Channel

View etchings by Brian Giza on our gallery website.

Ephemera - Etchings by Stephen Lawlor, Exhibition Opening Reception

Viewers admiring the work of Stephen Lawlor

On Friday, September 4, 2015, New Grounds Gallery hosted an artist reception for Ephemera- Etchings by Stephen Lawlor. Stephen was the first place winner of our 2013 International Juried exhibition, and this 2015 solo exhibition is part of the award New Grounds offered. 

We are proud to showcase his stunning, multi-plate etchings!

Travelling all the way from Ireland, Stephen Lawlor was in New Mexico for the opening!

Stephen (left-center) discusses his work with other printmakers during the opening

A selection of Stephen's etchings in the New Grounds Gallery

Stephen Lawlor’s etchings reflect the history of western painting as a subject in itself but also include the natural world through the same filter. Lawlor’s images are evocative of abstracted ‘actual landscapes’, both of which have a definite relationship with a pre-photographic sensibility.

Stephen Lawlor, Outskirts, Etching, 9.75 x 11" 

All of the pieces in Ephemera are multiple plate etchings with spit-bite aquatint. Painting with acid onto the plate creates their fluidity of form and delicate tonal ranges. The master plate is drawn on hard ground with an etching needle that leaps and jerks all over the plate. This convulsive line creates tension and adds character to the dreamlike quality. They draw the viewer back in time and hold the attention by submerging the subject within these lines, forms and random marks which are unique to etching. Most of the works employ the use of four plates but some as few as two. The process of drawing, biting and proofing is physical and intense and requires a persistence and stamina which has been developed over many years.

Stephen Lawlor: Resonance II and Water and Light

Stephen Lawlor, Ecce Homo II, Etching 11.75 x 9.5"

Ethereal, poetic, spiritual, luminous, ambiguous, otherworldly, sensitive, intimate and diffuse are words that have been used to describe these etchings. The complexity of the overlapping layers of tone and colour the artist uses has no parallel in the mainstream within contemporary printmaking which adds to their unique strength.

Stephen giving his demo!

Stephen also provided a detailed, fascinating demo on his inking and printing methods during the exhibition opening. He demonstrated the use of three different plates, as well as a unique registration system that provides accurate results. We will be sharing a video of Stephen's demo shortly!

Stephen's three plates and his special palette of ink

Detail of one of the plates

Another angle of Stephen's inking station

Stephen Lawlor's visit is sponsored by the Honorary Consul for the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs in the South Western USA. 

More shots from the exhibition opening:

Did you miss the exhibition opening? Don't worry. The show runs through September 25, 2015. 

Lincoln Draper - Gravure Demo Video

In July, New Grounds artist Lincoln Draper gave a gravure demonstration at the exhibition opening for our three-artist gravure show, Explorations in Gravure - 19th Century Aesthetic, 21st Century Technology. The audience loved it!

Lincoln demonstrates  inking, wiping and printing a gravure plate, and also discusses exposure and image-making. 

You can view the edited video here, on the New Grounds Print Workshop & Gallery YouTube channel!  Follow our channel, too, if you haven't already. We are always adding new videos. 

Body and Movement - Etchings by Brian Giza, Exhibition Opening Recap

A select grouping of Giza's portrait etchings

On August 7th, 2015 (First Friday) we held an exhibition opening and artist reception for our latest show, Body and Movement - Etchings by Brian Giza. 

A master draftsman, portrait and figurative artist, Brian Giza can be found at ballet studios busily sketching the dancers as they put on their shoes, stretch and rehearse. He often works on the copper plates directly rather than sketching on paper first. An accomplished thespian and professor at UTEP, every moment in his life not teaching or performing Shakespeare is dedicated to making art. Giza’s dancers come very close in skill and expression to those of Manet.

Left - Line of Swans, drypoint on copper. Right - Landscape, etching.

Left - Tess in Lilac, 3-plate gravure. Right - Three in Snow, gravure. 

Giza says of his own work:I am a former dancer and current balletomane whose work focuses on portraits, nudes, and the environment of the ballet.  

My greatest joy in art is when I can discover, and then reveal some element of beauty to the model and to the viewer.  Because of my long association with the performing arts, capturing backstage moods, moments, and personalities is a thread that runs through my work.  

Although some may see my background in art, science, theater, and dance history as eclectic, these disciplines are actually complementary...especially when rendering the art and science of dance in the printmaking medium.  

More shots of the installation

Brian Giza also gave an excellent, live printmaking demonstration on the way he develops images on copper plates, inking and printing. Giza is fond of combining different kinds of intaglio approaches on the same individual plate surface, and he frequently returns to the same plates to continue developing the image over time.

Stay tuned for our video version of his demo! We'll be editing it and sharing it here on the blog in coming weeks.

One of Giza's rich copper plates

His inking and printing demonstration set-up

Here, Brian Giza discusses a worked copper plate with one of his models and other interested fans

Detail of the plate

Did you miss the opening reception? Don't worry. The exhibition runs August 7 - 29, 2015. 

More candids from the event:

July First Friday Exhibition - Explorations in Gravure

Viewers enjoy a selection of Lincoln Draper's single-plate gravure prints.

On July 3, New Grounds Print Workshop & Gallery hosted a First Friday reception, which featured a great new exhibition of gravure prints by Lincoln Draper, Fransisco Valenzuela and Jessica Weybright.

The exhibition, Explorations in Gravure - 19th Century Aesthetic, 21st Century Technology, runs through July 31. 

Works by Jessica Weybright (L) and Fransisco Valenzuela (R)

In this particular exhibition, we juxtapose various approaches to gravure, centered on landscape. Our three artists are examples of single plate, duo tone and full color gravure.

Lincoln Draper evokes the many moods and feelings of New Mexico through rich, traditional black and white imagery. His single-plate approach references a classic 19^th century aesthetic. 

Lincoln Draper with one of his prints,
contemplating my iPad photography 'skills.'

More of the crowd enjoying Lincoln's work (that's Jessica Weybright, too!)

Lincoln also gave a single-plate gravure demo. You can expect the demo video soon!
He demonstrated inking, wiping and printing one of the pieces featured in the exhibition.

Lincoln Draper's demo station

Lincoln Draper's Narrow Crossing

Fransisco Valenzuela uses the principle of duo tone by printing two plates, almost alike, and almost in the same hue, with the first one light and the second plate saturated. The result is a richer finality than printing the same plate once, bringing his world to life. 

Fransisco Valenzula's San Lorenzo de Picuris

Jessica Weybright’s colorful, layered multi-plate works document a romantic vision of her travels through Asia. Using multiple plates gives Weybright’s work a vibrant sense of transparency and movement.

Tanya Beth, Ken Murakami and Lincoln Draper

Multi-plate gravure by Jessica Weybright

Regina Held, Fransisco Valenzuela (R) and other guests

It is important to understand that gravure is not a means of reproducing existing photographs or drawings.  Photographs that will become the base for the photo etching usually need to be shot and developed differently than for photographic prints. The advantage of photo etching is its flexibility, which allows artists from varied backgrounds such as photography, computer graphics, and drawing to create hand printed limited editions. There is no limit to color, plates can be wiped in any one ink, several plates can be printed on top of each other, subtle shading can be achieved with selective wiping or chine collé, and gravure can be combined with any other printmaking techniques. The limit is the artist’s imagination.

Hong Kong Love Song II - Jessica Weybright

While in photography a negative is exposed directly to light-sensitive paper, in photogravure the image is exposed to a light-sensitive plate from which the image is then hand-printed on paper using an etching press. It is this particular detail that places gravure into the realm of printmaking.

Photogravure – which precedes photography - was revived in the mid-90s with the introduction of safer, light-sensitive polymer films and plates adapted from the circuit board industry. The image is generated by exposing a photo positive to a photo polymer plate via a high powered light. Usually, 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.

Viewers enjoy the work of Lincoln Draper

Tanya Landin and Jessica Weybright

Want to learn gravure yourself? We offer classes!

Miss the opening? Don't worry. The exhibition runs until July 31.