Printmaking at North Country Studio Workshops

I try to take one workshop every year, but it did not happen in 2019 because I was saving it up to take a workshop with Joyce Silverstone at North Country Studio Workshops. NCSW offers about a dozen different workshops, all in the same week, every other year, using the fabulous facilities at Bennington College. Bennington in the winter is not exactly a vacation destination, so you get to focus on studio work and commune with artists in all media from all over the place for a solid five days. It is a beautiful place to be in the winter: peaceful, with gorgeous views and no distractions from the art. Joyce is on the faculty at Zea Mays Printmaking in Northampton, MA.

Here are a few photos from my experience at this workshop:

Putting together a few of my black and white prints

Amy carving a test plate

The beehive of a studio

Another student's work up on the wall

Black and white work of several students

One of my assembled pieces, as hypothesis

Another of my hypothetical assemblages

Ditto the above

And another. This is SO FUN to put pieces of prints together in different ways, and then photo graph them. I did actually put one together more or less permanently.

Here are some more (and better) photos on North Country's Instagram feed. Enjoy!

North Country Studio Workshops 2018

In January 2018, North Country will offer thirteen simultaneous workshops. All workshops take place in the Visual and Performing Arts building (VAPA) on the campus of Bennington College. Faculty members have been recruited from around the United States, and each of them has won recognition both for artistic achievement and for teaching excellence.

 I am SO much looking forward to taking the printmaking workshop this winter, going back to being a student after teaching at the last session in 2016 (workshops happen every two years). It is an experience full of inspiration and connecting with artists in a wide variety of disciplines. There is concentrated studio time, terrific meals, housing right on campus. Yes, it is January in Vermont, but it's a great time to be indoors working and learning.

There are a few spots available in the Metal Jewelry workshop, with Tim Lazure, and a few in the Sculptural Woodworking with Sylvie Rosenthal.  I would love to see you there as a fellow student.

Tim Lazure

Sylvie Rosenthal

North Country Studio Workshops 6"x6" @ $66

Check out all the fabulous work available online now, created by North Country Studio Workshops Participants and Faculty.  Each piece is 6"x6", and is available for $66.

I donated four pieces to this fundraiser, one of which is still available.  There are pieces in many media, including ink on Yupo, ceramics, wood, textiles, painting, collage, and more.  This is a fabulous and affordable way to add to your art collection or buy a gift.  Or just ogle the eye candy.

Gelatin Printing in Vermont

I just got back from teaching Gelatin Print Collage at North Country Studio Workshops, an event at which I have been a student the last two sessions.  This workshop series happens every two years at Bennington College, which has absolutely awesome studio facilities. 

Looking down at the sculpture and basketry workshops

Looking across to drawing studio (2nd floor) and print studio (1st floor)

This is a group of my work, each 8"x8", I did to demonstrate working in series.

Martha working on her series

Student work

Jeanne

Collage papers and prints

Ditto the above

A HUGE output!

Check out my blog posts about previous experiences at NCSW in

• 2014 with Leonard Ragouzeos:  drawing workshop, more from workshop, ink on Yupo
• 2012 with Daniella Wolf: encaustic workshop, more about encaustic

A few of my fellow faculty members that might interest you are Lisa Pressman, who taught encaustic, Lisa Grey, mixed media, and Daniel Essig, book arts.   It was an intense week!  If you are interested in attending next time, in 2018, I suggest you get on NCSW's mailing list.  Classes are limited in size, so you get an intimate workshop, cross pollination from all the other workshops, and evening slide talks from all the faculty.  Plus really good food and a gorgeous setting!

Monoprint Collage - and a giveaway

THANKS to all of you who signed up for the online Monoprint Collage.  It is full now - that was quick!!  So, for those of you who would like an in-person intensive monoprint collage experience, I am teaching at North Country Studio Workshops in January.  It is a five-day intensive using the Bennington College art studios, which are full of light and are spacious.  The workshop is limited to twelve participants, and the studio are open 24 hours.  It is a fabulous place to immerse yourself in art and meet lots of other artists (there are thirteen workshops going on simultaneously, so you mingle at meals and evening slide talks).  I studies encaustic with Daniella Woolf at North Country in 2012, and drawing (ink on Yupo, actually) with Leonard Ragouzeos in 2014.  The workshops happen every other year. 

Here is a video I posted before, on using Golden OPEN Acrylics for Monoprinting.  I will give away a set of OPEN acrylics to a randomly selected person who comments on this post.

Here is how you enter:  go to North Country Studio Workshops and look around the site.  In your comment, tell me one or two things that you found there.  Please identify yourself uniquely ("Mary G in Louisiana", not just "Mary", for example).  The winner will be posted on Monday, and it is the winner's responsibility to contact me with a mailing address.

This is the OPEN set I'm offering.

Good luck!  Happy monoprinting.

6"x6" @ $66

North Country Studio Workshops is holding a fundraiser that consists of over 100 pieces of donated art, all 6"x6", on sale for $66 a piece.  I've written about my experiences at NCSW here, here, and here.  They hold five-day intensive workshops in January, every second year.  They get FABULOUS faculty, and the students are largely professional or serious amateur artists trying a new medium.  Most of the workshops are in craft media - ceramics, fiber, book arts, etc. - and there is usually a drawing workshop and one in photography as well.  January of 2016 is the next offering, and I will definitely be attending. 

Here are three pieces done in this layering-and-scratching-through technique that I love.  Two of them are in the NCSW fundraiser sale.  Part of the fundraiser is that the artist buys the 6"x6" panels for $5 each.  I only bought two; wish I'd gotten three. 

This is the one I did not donate, because I only had two panels.

All three of these start with two coats of intense Pyrrole Red paint. Then I layer neutrals and a bit of color over that, and scrape through.  We do these techniques in several of my workshops.

Apparently there will be a link to the 6"x6" show on October 6th, so I will share that with you at that time.  Meanwhile, check out NCSW. 

Ink on Yupo

OK, so here is the video demo that I promised.  You can find the background for this post in my previous post.  I just learned this last week at NCSW, with Leonard Ragouzeos, so I am a real beginner here.  I would send you to one or Leonard's workshops, but he does not teach on any regular basis.  You can beg him if you like, but meanwhile, look at this video and give it a try.

Have fun. Will I be teaching this in a workshop?  Maybe.  Let me get my own thing going with it first.  I am teaching a four day Big Fat Art workshop at Pacific Northwest Art School in September, and will at least demonstrate the techniques there, and let you fool around with it.

More from the Drawing Workshop

Here are a few more pix from the drawing workshop I took at North Country Studio Workshops with Leonard Ragouzeos.  North Country offers thirteen workshops in various media, simultaneously, using the fabulous facilities at Bennington College, during this one week in late January.  The workshops are offered every TWO years.

Here are some process shots of one of my pieces.  This is about 3' high:

Stage 1 (well, several stages in, but the first photo I took)

Stage 2, sort of

Stage 3

I think this is the finished piece.

Here are a few detail shots:

Detail 1

Detail 2

Detail 3

Here is my favorite piece, again with some detail shots:

This one is 3'x3'.

Detail 1

Detail 2

Detail 3

And a couple shots of The Master:

Drawing Mick Jagger

I have loads more pictures, but I'll leave it at this for now.  Thanks for visiting.

The best place to get Yupo is Jerry's Artarama.  There it is available in pads, large sheets, and rolls, so you can work really big if you like.  You can also get it at Blick Art Materials, but the rolls are more expensive.  Why do they sometimes call it "Yupo Watercolor Paper"?  It isn't watercolor paper at all; it is plastic!  Excuse me, "polymer".  It isn't even paper.  Anyhow, it is what it is, and is a really interesting substrate for India ink and other media.  India ink is cheap and available at virtually any art supply store.

Oh, one more picture.  Here is the Class Picture, missing two participants:

Is it my imagination, or did we all end up wearing black, white, and gray (except me)?

Drawing Workshop

I'm going to try to squeeze in a little post here about the drawing workshop I'm taking with Leonard Ragouzeos at North Country Studio Workshops. We are working with India ink on Yupo paper.  Watch out! I will not be able to resist the urge to demonstrate some of these techniques....  Meanwhile, some pix:

Ann working on a figure

Kathy working on her Javelina

My third composition

My first composition

My second composition

Someone else's figure

Someone else's figure

Vicki's figure

Ann's fiigure

My figure in graphite on paper

Grid of value studies

Kelsey working on Robot Man

Mary Jane's gorgeous head drawing

Value studies (mine)

More of my value studies

 Thanks for visiting!!!  More when I get back to the studio.  You are going to LOVE this set of materials.  Can't wait to show you.