Printmaker's Art Featured in Pacific Rim Whale Festival

Allison Tremain and her Spyhopping reduction cut linocut were selected as the featured art & artist for the 2012 Pacific Rim Whale Festival, March 17-25, 2012.  Her work is featured at Uclulet's Mark Penney Gallery.  Gotta get me one of those posters!

Leftovers III Exchange @WingtipPress

Time for this year's edition of Leftovers at Wingtip Press in Boise, ID.

LEFTOVERS III 

Prints: 14 (you'll get 12 in return, we keep one for exhibitions and one to raise funds for those who need our leftovers)
Size: Up to 5" x 7" - can be smaller, but NO larger please!
Cost: $12.00
Due Date: March 15, 2012
Ship to: Wingtip Press 6940 Butte Court Boise, ID 83704 USA

Contact Wingtip Press if you want to participate.

Little Print Book Project Flies Home

Last year, my printmaker buddy Sherrie York sent to me a little book in the mail: Jill Bergman's Little Print Book Project. Well, I was right in the throes of new mommy-hood, and was completely hopeless with pretty much anything at that point. I eventually managed to coordinate with other printmakers around here (Cowichan Valley, Victoria, and Richmond, BC, and Bellevue, WA) to contribute, then finally I managed to send the book off to AnniePod in Philadelphia, PA, who also sent it to Tuckamore Design in Buffalo, NY. You can see the final book at Jill's blog Art on the Page.

Thanks to everyone who contributed; it was a treat to see all your pieces, and what a fun way to connect with other printmakers.  Thanks, Sherrie for thinking to include me, and thanks Jill for getting the ball rolling in the first place!  I hope your other books come back full of lovely prints and more contacts.
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PS - Jill is still looking for contributors - if you're interested, visit her blog for contact info.

Kitchen Lithography - Viral Printmaking

I've seen this now through Printsy, Facebook, Twitter, Printeresting, and a few other sources, so I just had to share.

Lithographie maison — Kitchen Lithographie — Lithography

Uploaded by emilivideo on 8 September 2011

How exciting!  Now, I just have to be able to find time & energy to get back into the studio!  

OK, so that leads to Mommy Update: we're all doing well, thank you.  Kate is now 15 months (yikes!) and not quite walking everywhere but just about, with lots of proto-words and a lot of smiles & giggles.

International Print Day

Press by Team Nerd, on Flickr

Get out your squeegees and spitstickers, resin boxes and liquid tusche, presses and barens, ladies and gentlemen it's International Print Day!! Whatever your printmaking passion, press on, boys and girls, and get some ink on paper today! Share what you've done - make a comment (although be patient; I've had to moderate comments because of all the spam) and send a link to your work from today. Share it with MPC Fine Art Club's printmakers on the Print Day in May blog (they're the group who got the brayer rolling back in 2007), and mark the first Saturday in May in your calendars for next year so that we can be a little more coordinated about it!

Cowichan Valley Fine Arts Show 2011

Fairest Of Them All

acrylic on canvas

(c) 2011 Amie Roman

I've put the above piece in this year's CVAC Fine Arts Show.

All are invited to Cowichan Valley Arts Council's 41st annual arts show. It is the largest non-juried art show in the Cowichan Valley, featuring recent artworks by artists living and working in the Cowichan Valley.

Gala Opening! Wednesday, April 6 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Everyone welcome. Meet the artists and share in the fun.

Thursday, April 7 Open 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Friday, April 8 Open 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 9 Open 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 10 Open 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Quw'utsun' Conference & Cultural Centre, 200 Cowichan Way in Duncan.

Admission is $5 for adults and free admission for children.

Your support of the arts and artists is greatly appreciated.

Each day different CVAC members, artists and representatives of arts groups will host the show, giving demonstrations and talking about the art work.

Daily Program
Thursday, April 7, 10 am – 12 noon : Handbuilding in clay, Jane Wolters
1 - 4 pm : Rug hooking, Colleen Wike

Friday, April 8, 1- 4pm : Artists Trading Cards with Beverlee McLeod

Saturday, April 9, 1 – 4 pm : Silk painting, Clare Carver
10 - 12 and 1 - 3 pm : Face Painting

Sunday, April 10, 1 – 4 pm - Weaving of all sorts by Alison Irwin
11 - 3pm : Face Painting

Printmaking Treasuries

Here are a few more:







Enjoy!

Digital Work - Bullrider

While I've not been in the printmaking studio (other than to plant up our seedlings for the summer...), I've done a little bit more preparation for some printmaking in the future.

We used to attend the Williams Lake Stampede, but haven't been for a few years. I took lots of photos at the last two with the intention of turning them into something artistic at some point. I had done a few mixed media images from some of the photos: semi-blind contour sketches followed by watercolour monotype and coloured pencil crayons (if I manage to dig up one of those pieces, I'll take a photo and post at some point), but nothing much since. I hadn't decided how else to use the images, then the other day I thought maybe I'd try playing around with GIMP and my Wacom graphics tablet like I did with Murri, and see what came out of it.

So I started with a photo that I'd scanned a while ago, and cropped a little:

I tweaked the image so that it was then just greyscale:

Using a new layer and the Ink tool in GIMP, this is the first sketch:

While I was pretty happy with it, Dave & my cousin, Len, commented that they couldn't figure out where the bull ended and the rider started. I've highlighted the problem area here:

It seemed to them that the chaps of the rider were actually the back of the bull, and thus the leg disappeared and didn't "read" properly: it seemed like the rider was positioned side-saddle. We chatted about what I could do to improve the image, and we decided that as long as there was some kind of distinction between the back of the bull and the chaps of the rider, that it should probably work. Here is the second attempt:

While the leg still disappears to a certain extent, I'm thinking this will probably be it. I do like the composition better, and with a black & white simplification, you definitely can lose detail, but that's something that appeals to me, personally. Any comments or suggestions?

There will likely be more of these as I can take the time to do them; there's already another under way.