Printing in Spain by Barbara Milman

Inside the Studio

The Outside of the Studio

I just returned from a wonderful week–long printmaking workshop in Andalusia, near Granada, Spain.  Maureen Booth, who has lived in Spain with her husband, Mike Booth WorldPrintmakers.com since the 1960’s, is a very accomplished printmaker who runs workshops for individuals or groups throughout the year.  Her studio, looking out on the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, is well equipped for many printmaking techniques.

Barbara in the Studio

During my week with Maureen I learned to use solar plates in many different ways. I made solar plate etchings, relief prints, prints using some of the dried local plants that Maureen collects, and prints made from a charcoal drawing on glass.   The plates can also be made from photographic or computer images. The process is very quick and simple (or so it seemed with such a good teacher), is non-toxic, requires no expensive equipment, and is suitable for my home studio.  At the end of the week I made a very nice small edition of one of the prints.

Barbara and Maureen Booth

Maureen also works with artists on other techniques, including traditional etching.  Workshops are flexible, from a week to months.  Artists stay in a lovely small cottage (a refurbished chicken coop) with a kitchen and a balcony (and a friendly small dog if you miss your own pet) on their property.  It is a five to ten minute walk to the village of Pinos Genil, and Granada is less than an hour by bus.

All in all,  a beautiful place to relax and do some serious printmaking, as well as a good starting point for a Spanish vacation (I went on to Barcelona after the workshop).  For more information about Maureen and the workshops visit her websites:

• El Gallinero

• Printmaking Courses in Spain

Filed under: Article, from a Member, Members, Travel, Workshop

Berkeley Times writes up the Light/Dark Show

Untitled Billboards by Jenny Robinson

The Berkeley Times wrote up a 3 page article about the California Society of Printmakers Light/Dark show!

You can download the PDF here: Light-Dark-Berkeley-Times

Filed under: Article, East Bay, Link, Show Review

Anthony Ryan visits SF MOMA’s Shadow Shop

Imen Yeh and Nian Hua Workshop assistant John Watts

This week I visited the Shadow Shop at SF MOMA and became a participant in the “Nian Hua Workshop” a project of the San Francisco based printmaker and conceptual artist Imin Yeh. Those of you familiar with Imin Yeh’s work know that
she embraces an idea of the multiple print as merchandise.She brilliantly accessed
this aspect of printmaking in her graduate school project “Ben Jam” in which she produced 85 woodblock portraits of Benjamin Franklin and sold them for $100 dollars each. In theory the $8500 generated would have obviated the need for her to take out a federal Stafford loan for her degree at California College for the Arts.

This pragmatic, sardonic approach to art production dovetails perfectly with Stephanie Syjuco’s Shadow Shop project, a component of “The More Things Change” at SFMOMA through April 28. Artist Stephanie Syjuco has created a museum store with in the Museum. Functioning as a critique of the commercialization of the museum space (particularly during hard economic times), it s also a way for Syjuco to honor to the Bay Area Artist community that has nurtured her career. The sale of the 200 artists’ wares featured will result in 100% profit for the (local) artists involved. Nian Hua Workshop is a “live project” within Shadow Shop where Yeh enlists visitors to the exhibition be producers of a series of hand colored woodcuts the artist created specifically for the exhibition, images of (invented) beneficial deities for the Chinese New Year (Yeh has first hand experience with the sale of such “auspitious” cultural objects having worked in the store at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco). Far from sharing the glory of the artist’s accomplishment these visitors get a taste of the anonymity of assembly line production (they are assigned a number and given strict directions on how to execute their tasks). Aside from receiving part of the fruit of thire labors in the form of a print these workers do not enjoy the profits of the sale of said objects. Yeh’s ability to work in traditional printmaking forms while using them as a vehicle for her critique of consumerism and the commoditization of cultural difference is an inspiring lesson in the contemporary relevance of printmaking.

Nian Hua Workshop ended February 24 but you can still visit the Shadow Shop
until April 24 at SFMOMA.

Anthony Ryan at the shop

Filed under: Article, From the President, Museum, Products, San Francisco, Show Review

Lila Wahrhaftig on a recent visit to the Crocker Art Museum

On Saturday, January 8, 2011 about sixteen members of CSP (including some happy spouses) were treated to a special tour and viewing of some of the California prints in the new study room area of the Crocker Art Museum, one of California’s major art museums. With an area now almost three times larger than before, new buildings and remodeling, the extensive collection can now be viewed in a thoughtful and comfortable context. With  We met at reserved tables for a delicious lunch before joining Dr. William Breazeale, Curator of Prints and Drawings, for our private tour. It was also a chance to connect with some of our Sacramento CSP printmakers.

In a spacious and well-lit study room, we were able to closely examine prints by such California icons as Roi Partridge whose engravings of the Sierras landscape won medals in France around the period of World War I, through such other print masters as Wayne Thiebaud, Roland Petersen. and Gerald Gooch. We closely examined the drawing and needling techniques of each artist, how they applied color, even the very texture of the printing paper used.

Later some of us browsed through other areas of the museum, admiring how each art object had its own space, yet kept a relationship to the works around it. As an aside, the Crocker was totally full of people, families, artists, old and young, all enjoying their museum. As a bonus, free posters were given out as we left to walk back to the train station.

Jack and I took the train from Jack London Square in Oakland to Sacramento and back to make the whole day a very special one. We are old enough to remember with much nostalgia when traveling by train was a common, yet magical way to take a journey. Old Sacramento is an interesting and historic area between the station and the Crocker, with restaurants, galleries, etc. That will be part of our next trip to the Crocker Art Museum.

Many thanks to Dixie Laws for arranging the recent California Society of Printmakers special trip and viewing to the recently refurbished and much enlarged Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California.

Filed under: Article, from a Member, Museum, California, Crocker Art Museum, Field Trip, Lila Wahrhaftig, Sacramento

Artist John Babcock discusses his print

John Babcock’s print “Fifty-eight Houses/Fifty-eight Dreams” was included in the recent CSP show, the 98th Annual Membership Exhibition at the Alameda Library. John  graciously offered to tell us about his piece, since many of the Member were intrigued with his incorporation of color and paper in his blind embossed print. Enjoy! -Ed.

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Fifty-eight Houses/Fifty-eight Dreams by John Babcock

I am interested in symbols and hieroglyphics, occasionally using certain ones in my work. I use the triangle or pyramid shape to signify or represent a house or shelter, an elemental and basic human need.. A series of triangles together could be a group of humanity, a town or city. In this print the triangle symbolizes shelter in a document format.

The plate was made from 1/8″ mahogany plywood and I carved out the triangles with a knife. Each print from this series is unique because I make a special sheet of paper for each print.

To make the paper, I first beat a batch of white cotton pulp and pigmented it off white with a small amount of yellow ochre and black iron oxide pigment. In another batch of cotton pulp I added carbon black pigment and black iron oxide to create an almost black pulp. A small batch of abaca fiber pulp was then made to match the off-white cotton.

The paper sheet was poured rather than vat moulded.  I used a large screen on a flat table and blocked out the size of paper needed for this print. Then I divided this space with a Plexiglas strip.  On one side, I poured the white pulp and on the other, the black. I removed the plexi strip and worked the two pulps together. Last I poured the abaca fiber pulp in a gestural motion.  (The abaca fiber pulp will only show up from a specific angle in the cotton base sheet when light is reflected off it.) The sheet was dried overnight.

I ran the dry paper through the press, maximum pressure with no dampening. The un-calendared paper is soft enough to pick up all detail. I size the paper after printing.

John Babcock

Filed under: About the Work, Article, from a Member, From the Editor, John Babcock

Dasiy Eneix’s Museum Visit: San Francisco Legion of Honor’s JAPANESQUE

Tomoko Murakami demonstrates Japanese ukiyo-e printmaking techniques.

 

CSP member Daisy Eneix visited the Legion of Honor’s Japanesque show recently and wrote about it on her blog. She was able to watch a demonstration on Japanese ukiyo-e printmaking techniques by Tomoko Murakami.

Head over to her blog and take a look!

Filed under: Article, Link, Online, San Francisco, Show Review, Blog, Dasiy Eneix, Japanesque, Legion of Honor, Museum, San Francisco

Karl Kasten: A Rememberance by Kevin Radley

If you drive or look east you begin to see the blue abstraction of the Sierra Foot Hills. There is a theory in art that the further away an object is the more abstract it is and because of the distance the color of the object turns blue for the light is cooler.  The closer one gets the more vivid the shapes become, and the clarity of color comes clearer warmer, more vivid. This is what my relationship with Karl Kasten was for the last ten years. First from a distance and in time the colors became richer and warmer and the details became clearer. I saw how remarkable an artist, a teacher and a man he was.

Nearly every day at 11:30 Karl came into the Art Department office to check his mail, chat with folks and make some phone calls and say Hi. It was easy to talk with him. It didn’t take him long to find out that I ran the noon lecture series for the department. It didn’t take long for him to drop the question, “So Kevin, how about I do a lecture one of these days. The students would love it.” Karl wasn’t shy to ask for anything, and he was nearly impossible to say no to. So I scheduled him for a noon talk and hoped for the best. That wasn’t something I needed to worry about, especially filling the room with attendees. Karl seemed to have his own audience of friends family, colleagues, folks he had over lunch, and perhaps a dealer or two. As for the talks themselves, they were less like lectures than intricate weavings of the ideas of the history of art, from Lascaux to Matisse, from Cezanne to post-modernism, from the ying /yang symbol to his theories of pictorial composition, from the beauty of egg tempera to the physical splash of abstract expressionism, from the early formation of the newly developed UC Berkeley Art Department in the 1920’s to The Berkeley School, and always mentioning his lifelong mentor Worth Ryder, and the remarkable array of artists that influenced Karl throughout his artistic life: Hans Hoffman, Wilem De Kooning, Chiura Obata, and John Haley among so many others.

As the cycle of life tells us, our history is what provides us with the reasoning for the moment we live in. I too love that department: it gave me the reason to be, to work, to teach to shape the future. There was a kinship I had developed with Karl through a couple of earlier lectures he presented. So in 2007 I popped the plan. I told him I wanted to show his work in the gallery as a retrospective and an homage to the early years of the Art Department and in the place that was named after his great mentor and the house he had helped build, The Worth Ryder Gallery. Karl loved the idea. I really didn’t know much about Karl’s work, but I was certain that the exhibition would be sensational, and we both relished the idea of bringing a historical perspective to the department.

Filed under: Article, Historical, "Karl Kasten" "Kevin Radley"

Karl Kasten, 1916- 2010: An Introduction by Maryly Snow

I published a short article on Karl Kasten in the Spring 2008 NewsBrief. Reading it over today, after a moving memorial luncheon for him, I realize that my article is flawed: it has the facts, but doesn’t begin to convey the enthusiastic generosity of spirit and joyful love of art that is Karl’s hallmark. This revised version is an appetizer to whet your appetite for a few more substantive articles on Karl that will follow from people who really knew him well.

Karl in July 2009 standing in front of his prize-winning 1938 piece,
“The Berkeley Campus”, permanently installed In the O’Neill Room,
Faculty Club, University of California, Berkeley.

That Was Then: Origins of the Bay Printmakers Society.

I went to visit CSP member Karl Kasten in August of 2007 to ask him about the founding of the Bay Printmakers Society (BPS). CSP had Our predecessor organizations, California Society of Etchers (CSE) and Bay Printmakers Society (BPS). They merged in 1968 to create the California Society of Printmakers (CSP). Karl was president of both organizations, the last year of BPS and at the first year of CSP.

What I wanted to know was why BPS had started up in 1955, when California Society of Etchers (CSE) was still in existence?  The archival records in the CSP Archives at the Bancroft Library don’t seem to address this question.

I had been to Karl’s house once or twice before many years ago. As I entered and saw the layout of the living room to the right, the dining room to the left, with the foyer and staircase in the center, I remembered the Kasten art-infused environment, and was really glad to see it again. Art everywhere. Gauguin, his love, Gauguin’s teacher Emile Bernard, African masks, Egon Schiele. Worth Ryder sketches and paintings, Rolf Eiselin, John Ihle, Kenji Nanao. Kandinsky. More, lots more. Of course, selections from Kasten’s work, including his most recent collographs and paintings.

Filed under: Article, Historical

Hecho en Mazatlán /Made in Mazatlán review

Hecho en Mazatlán /Made in Mazatlán

Museo de Arte, Mazatlan, MX – December 4, 2009 – January 8, 2010
StoneMetal Press, San Antonio, TX – May 8 – June 19, 2010

a review by Grace Andriola Purpura

Glen Rogers is a strong force in the world of art and architecture. A versatile artist as well as master printmaker and teacher, she is a leader in the development of new art forms. In her quest for artistic expression, she has invited artists, both local and international since 2007, to share in the experience of furthering their own personal expression through printmaking in her studio and workshop in Mazatlán, where she now lives. “Hecho in Mazatlán/Made in Mazatlán”, shows the fruits of her labor and that of her workshop participants. A handsome show, it reveals the work of thirty-eight diverse artists from Mexico, the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. The work ranges from abstraction to realism and shows a full spectrum of the monotype process.

Glen Rogers & Kathleen Pittman at StoneMetal Press

Though unique as a printing medium, monoprinting has existed since the seventeenth century. Degas, Gauguin, Pissarro, Kandinsky and Picasso have all experimented with it.

Monotype (or monoprint) – often called the “painterly print” – is a one-of-a-kind print made by applying ink to an acrylic or metal plate. The plate is then run through an etching press with a damp sheet of paper, transferring the image to paper. Monotype has a spontaneity and freedom that other print processes, such as lithography or etching, do not. You can work in any style – from detailed, traditional styles to looser abstractions, incorporating photography, collage, text, to fine line work. Artists use everything from brushes, fingers, rags, hand-rollers, and stencils to achieve a multitude of textures and looks.

Filed under: Article, Show Review, Glen Rogers, Grace Andriola Purpura, Made in Mazatlan, Monoprint, Monotype

Monotype in Mazatlán

Monotype in Mazatlán
By Robynn Smith, CSP member

As I write this, I am looking at 750 images shot last week during a printmaking excursion in Mazatlán, Mexico. Fluorescent sunsets, brightly colored building facades with ornate iron work, huge burlap sacks of chilis and dried beans, trays of steaming tamales and foamy ocean waves. Oh yes, and monotypes. Scads of them. The prints are overflowing tables, pinned to walls and sitting on the bed of a huge, gorgeous, bright blue Griffin press.

Glen Rogers Studio

How is it that I spent a week in perfect weather, body surfing, exploring ancient petro glyphs on a deserted beach and still managed to come home with a dozen prints that I’m wild about? I took a group of printmakers to a workshop at the Mazatlán studio of CSP member and former Bay Area printmaker Glen Rogers.

Filed under: Article, Glen Rogers, Mazatlan, Monotype, Printmaking, Robynn Smith