Printmaking Courses in Spain

Carole Pearson, UK

Carole Pearson is a English painter and printmaker who came to my studio for a week last summer after a two-week walking holiday in Andalusia. As well as being an engaging person, she’s a born artist who took to the studio like a natural. By the end of the week we were soul sisters and she’s coming back at the end of this month (May, 2015) to mount a joint exhibit with me at my new mini-gallery and studio.

Here are some of her observations from her stay in the Gallinero:

Instead of going to art school, I went  to work in a bank. Not that I miss formal art training. I’ve always suspected–and this week working with Maureen in her studio has confirmed–that my work is more original for not having entered into the system. What Maureen made clearer than ever to me was that what an artist expresses sincerely is all valid.

I really had no idea what to expect, beyond an etching press and a nice person whom I had been corresponding with by email. But in the end it was a tremendously fulfilling experience. I’m convinced that I’ve advanced more than a year in printmaking in just one week’s intensive work with Maureen. Working one on one with a master is such a luxury.

From the visitors’ book: “Thank you so much for a wonderful week. I am rested, instructed, filled with creative hope and stuffed with all the goodies you keep bringing me. And not to forget Mike’s paella–a dream.”

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.TASIS, The American School in Switzerland

Last February the TASIS art department chose Granada and my printmaking studio as the destination for one of their semi-annual academic trips. They stayed in our village hotel and spent five mornings in the studio learning the basics of solarplate printmaking.

The students, who arrived with a solid grounding in art and a healthy enthusiasm for something new, took immediately to creating images on acetates and burning them onto solar plates. They were delighted with the speed at which solarplate techniques yield results. The good news is that they’re planning to come back next year. These are some snapshots of the TASIS students at work and at play in Granada, along with some of the prints they created. (Click on the images to enlarge them.)

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Christine Morro, New York, USA

Christine, who spends her summers in a village in the Sierra Alpujarra, on the other side of our Sierra Nevada mountains, dropped by last summer and stayed here working for a few days on her way home to New York. She’s coming back this summer at the end of July for a longer stay.

A photographer as well as a printmaker, Christine is a warm and gratifying person to work with. She has an original printmaking technique based on painting with ink on plates. While she was here she worked on incorporating some color into her work which, until then, had been exclusively monochrome. It will be interesting to see what she comes up with on her next visit.

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From the visitors’ book: “An enchanted place here in the Pinos Genil of Maureen and Mike–the light, the hum of the river all found its way into my work and I was encouraged in all those ways necessary for my work to grow, even in these short days. Thank you.”

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Edith May, Fire Station Print Studio, Melbourne, Australia

Edith, who studied architecture and Australian art  in the eighties, took over the direction of the Fire Station Print Studio in 2010. Since then the studio has built up its membership to 100 artists; instituted a year-round gallery program with a professional curator; initiated community art programs for the intellectually disabled, migrant women and people with addiction problems; and achieved recognition both in the Australian printmaking community and on the social networks, where Edith has proven herself an excellent communicator.

She came to my studio for two weeks in the summer of 2013 to get her feet wet in printmaking. I think she was surprised to find how well she did and how much she enjoyed it.

“What I liked about working with Maureen was how easy she made it,” says Edith. “Printmaking can be confusing, but Maureen does everything in a logical order and that makes the processes easy to follow. And, of course, working one-on-one is a great luxury. I was amazed at the amount of ground we covered and all the prints we created.”

Here are some snapshots of Edith in the studio and some of the work she created:

From the visitors’ book: “Thanks for all you have done for me these past 10 days. ¡Muchas gracias! I’ve had a great time.”

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