Printmaking Courses in Spain

Audrey Feltham, Deer Lake, Newfoundland, Canada

Audrey and her husband Jim were here for just a few days but in that time she did some interesting prints and we learned a lot about the Canadian northeast. Jim told some wonderful stories of his experiences as a high-school teacher and basketball coach in a village on the northernmost coast of Baffin Island, which enjoys low winter temperatures of 40-50 degrees below zero. “How far is it from the nearest town?” I asked. “About an hour,” he replied. “By road?” “No, by plane. There aren’t any roads.” And like that. Here’s wishing the Felthams well, and do bundle up, won’t you!

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Isabel Fallow, UK

Isabel Fallow and her husband, Jack, have been here twice. It was convenient for them as their daughter has a house not far from here in one of Granada’s neighboring provinces. On Isabel’s first visit we did a quick introduction to solarplate printmaking. Her second visit took her further into the technique and she produced some interesting abstract work, which she has subsequently exhibited successfully in the U.K.

Mike enjoyed spending some of that time with Jack, a business eminence who started from the shop floor. Even in retirement Jack doesn’t slow down. He’s one of the prime movers of Britain’s National Youth Jazz Orchestra. In short, it’s not easy to find such a talented and dynamic couple.

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Isabel Mitchell, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Isabel Mitchell, a Toronto town planner with an art degree from long ago, was longing to get back into art and found me on Internet. Though she had not been to Spain before she immediately found herself at home in the language, as she had grown up in Argentina.

We worked together mainly on negative solarplate prints with chine collé, a technique which she loved and which she has continued to explore. A glance at the work in her recent show in Toronto gives an idea of her evolution.

From the visitors’ book: “This has been a most extraordinary and wonderful two weeks–not enough. I cannot begin to thank you. I will have to come back to do so.”

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Janet Stahle-Fraser, Baysville, Ontario, Canada

Janet and her husband Dave arrived from the Ontario woods like a breath of piney air. While Janet and I made prints, Mike and Dave spent days chiseling into the solid-stone wall of our house to mount an ornate iron plant-pot holder. Janet, an experienced printmaker with her own Tapawingo Studio back home, was quick to dominate solar-plate techniques and made some lovely prints. When they returned home she sent us a whole series of DVD’s with the most amazing selections of movies and music which I still play in my studio. Here are a few pictures. Mike was too busy hammering on a stone wall to make any more.

 From the visitors’ book: “If I had he power to bestow a name for Maureen it would be ‘Maureen-Quick-to-Feel-and-to-See.’ Maureen, you have a big heart and a playful spirit and it has been a terrific experience to be in your studio and create a substantial amount of work. The air here in the Sierra Nevada has allowed me to relax and focus on my work. And no phone… hurray!”

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Barbara Milman, California, USA

Barbara Milman, a past president of the California Society of Printmakers (CSP), came here in summertime. Barbara had never worked with solar plates before, but with her excellent grounding in printmaking, quickly came to grips with them. When she returned home she presented one of her prints (the multicolored one with the deer, below) to an important printmaking competition and won second prize.

Besides being an excellent artist, Barbara is an interesting person. Mike and I were fascinated to hear her experiences as a civil rights lawyer in the American south in the 60s. In 1997 Barbara created Light in the Shadows, a beautiful and moving book with five stories of Holocaust survivors, illustrated with her striking black and white woodcuts.