The  story of Elephant and Moon is from a story Circle, a group of 6 writers each contributing a line, one after another. I edited slightly to run a bit smoother.

Photo copies from magazine collage and watercolour

GZPS Hands on Mini Workshop (HOM)

Mittens & Poupées 
Hands on Mini Workshop
Skill-building for Printmakers

Presented by Victoria Edgarr

May 7 2013,Tuesday Eve 7 to 9pm

Make a pair of your own ‘mittens’ from aluminum - to take home.

Learn Soaking, Crunching & Smoothing techniques to prepare Tarlatan for
·       ink application (Poupées) 
·   plate wiping, etching, drypoint, collograph
·       monoprint glazing, tinting  

Materials for Mittens included

Stiff Tarlatan provided for demonstration
                            or
purchase your own at GZPS 40 x 44” $10.
-or Opus

you can bring a pencil & heavy scissors

GZPS Members $5, non-members $10.-

Our next Open House for Visions is July 28. The work is coming along fabulously, lots of different printmaking techniques and ways of interpreting the sites.

 At the July Open House many of the artists will be present with their work and there will be  Artist-printmaker Demonstrations.          

1 pm  Nic Vandergugten will print his Lino Cut  "from Beacon Hill" on the screw press                        

2pm   Kathy Guthrie will print using colour inks in the Stencil Monoprint technique, on the etching press

3pm   Agnes Ananichuk will be working from Inageon plates Photo-Etching Printing -etching press

Saturday June 30, 12 to 5pm
at the Historic Chinatown GZPS studio

After 3 or 4 generations of drawing out the image to understand the details and essentials, I'm ready to make the transfer tracing to lay onto the soft grounded zinc plate.

I started the "last" one with 4 B pencil . The 4 B will transfer with out too much pressure- The graphite will lay down -the ground will not lift off. I won't use the press, I'll press with a pencil.

Which way is the right way?
Oops, I laid the graphite on the wrong side- Start again ...

Tomorrow, Thurs  June 7 is our last official Plein Air at 10 AM!! at the Chinese Cemetery.
This is my Plein Air kit.
I'm using my old paint box.
It's the first piece of art equipment I ever had, a present from my parents as I headed off to Mount Alison U, in New Brunswick for a summer workshop.
The slots in the lid are perfect for holding roll up plates and water soluble plates.
My mulberry chine paper will be mounted on newsprint rolled up and placed in the box.

Ready to Go.

Great Plein Air, Cindy! Thanks Alain, Nancy, Agnes, Gail, Allen &Gary
Afternoon,nice light, but it looks a lot warmer than it felt, after 1 1/2 hours sitting still in that gorgeous wind.

The roll up plate. I'm pleased with the drawing but I don't love it- I's not exactly my vision of this scene. I think that makes it easier to want to work it out in an etching.

My Bastion Square long monoprint  I feel is so spot-on that it makes me nervous to try to translate it into a plate. I will have to think about that.

I reworked the roll up plate, working on the light table, wiping away ink , experimenting with the values.

Then I printed it on Rives. The ink is quite dry-when I tried to print one of these on mulberry. the paper completely stuck, but the Rives is tough enough to peel off.

This is the ghost-I might use it with pencils to work out values.

I got the image I wanted more or less, although the print is a but blurred -the wind was really strong and I had to keep slapping my hand down on the paper to keep it from flying away-so lots of 'incident' on the print!

This was my first attempt, monoprint transfer,I started way to big to fit the scene I wanted on the page, but kept on anyway to get some of the shapes. The rooftop of the clock tower has a bit of a Chinese tilt to it, and the rounded gable is very baroque, reminds me of that famous Square in Brussells.

 When I get some of the details worked out I can go back with another sheet of tracing paper and recapture the spirit which may have become a little stiff & correct in the process of my trying to understand it.

  What do I need to notice, what aspects are important...I need to get these lacy details to
at leaset look right.
When I make an edition of etchings I may have to print it 75 times or more. It's worth it to be happy with it. 

I then put tracing paper on top of the xerox and continue the diagramatic drawing, filling in details and focusing sketchy constructions. How much sense does the drawing make in a plain way?

I traced my monoprint tonto tracing paper then xeroxed it to see it frontways and also to find what is there seperate from the energy of the lines and the monoprint effects. Yeah I still like it!

 The big picture. about 1 1/4 hours..till I was frozen stiff, but I'm very happy with the sketch.
I will use it as the basis for my Bastion Square etching. This monoprint I will "chine-up".

 Some, like Cindy Wright,  were well prepared for the weather.

 There was a good turnout by GZPS 150 artists- great support for each other to persevere with our work despite the bone chilling spring weather.

Plein Air
Bastion Square
May 23 2012
Time of day:
3pm to 5pm
I scouted the site out the previous evening with Alain, so I had a good idea of where I wanted to draw from, my point of view.

From my series called "Snapshots" watersoluble monoprints, sketching out my vision of the Square. made the day before from memory, to work out my (literal)point of vie. I like the red pods and the lampost!