June 26, 2016 by Michael Booth
It was such a beautiful morning yesterday that Mike took his camera and macro lens out in the garden. The red flowers and baby fruit are from our pomegranate tree. Spanish for “pomegranate” is “granada,” by the way. A neighbor gave us a cutting of the blue morning glories on the right many years ago. They came with a warning: “Be careful, they can take over your garden.” They did. The wispy little white flowers are honeysuckle. They form banks in the garden and perfume the atmosphere out there all summer. The yellow star is a zucchini flower. We put zucchini in everything. The two yellow flowers are some sort of squash, which appeared on top of the compost heap. Our lemon tree is called a “limonero lunar” in Spanish. It flowers every month so during most of the year we have both flowers and fruit. Here’s the pictures.
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P.S. This one’s for cousin Carole.
Posted in Maureen Booth, Maureen's World, Pomegranate Editions, Printmaking Granada, Printmaking in Spain | Tagged master printmaker Spain, Maureen Booth, printmaking in Granada, printmaking Spain, printmaking workshops | Leave a Comment »
June 22, 2016 by Michael Booth
Here’s the second half of the photographs from the IB Bremen printmaking workshop 2016.
Posted in Grabado Granada, IB Bremen, Maureens printmaking workshops, Pinos Genil, Printmaking Courses Spain, Printmaking in Spain | Tagged Maureen Booth, printmaking courses, printmaking Granada, printmaking Spain, printmaking workshops, solar-plate printmaking | Leave a Comment »
June 19, 2016 by Michael Booth
Brenda Eubank-Ahrens returns to my studio for the fifth (or is it the sixth?) consecutive year with a new group of students from her art class (two of whom were here last year) at the IB School of Bremen, Germany. We both look forward to these visits. It gives so much satisfaction to see young artists blossom in a new setting with new techniques. And the results can be surprising. (You will be able to see the display of their work on Tuesday’s post.)
Posted in Coaching for printmakers, Grabado Granada, IB Bremen, Maureen Booth, Maureen's World, Maureens printmaking workshops, Printmaking Courses Spain, Printmaking in Spain | Tagged IB Bremen printmaking, Maureen Booth, printmaking courses Spain, printmaking workshops, solar-plate printmaking | Leave a Comment »
June 15, 2016 by Michael Booth
Words and pictures by Mike Booth
A couple of times a month I take Maureen to Granada to restock the prints she sells in a couple of gift shops who cater to mainly tourists. While she attends her clients I wait for her in Plaza Nueva, and practice my street photography. Plaza Nueva is one of Spain’s–and the world’s–finest people-watching spots. Yesterday was one of those days.
When she finishes her work we usually go for a drink to one of our favorite bars–Los Diamantes–conveniently located in the square. The bar was full to overflowing but after just a couple minutes’ wait we spotted two seats at one of their long, community-style tables and sat down next to a couple of adolescent Asian girls. They turn out to be from the Philippines. We started chatting to them and “a drink” turned into half a dozen. We never drink that much any more but the moment was right for sipping white wine and laughing. Oh, and eating the Diamantes tapas, some of the finest in the land.
The conversation was like the ones you have with strangers on airplanes, wide ranging and sincere. I ask one of the girls what work she did in Philippines. “Shopping centers,” she said. I couldn’t decide if she was a check-out girl or a window decorator. I opted for the upper road: “Oh, you are an office worker involved in finance or publicity…”
“No,” she replied, “I have teams for all of that. We build shopping centers. I just direct the teams. Suddenly my 19-year-old student on a gap year was a 31-year-old professional.
As I already had my camera out I continued to make pictures in the bar. Here are the results:
Click on the images to open a slide show
Posted in Grabado Granada, Granada people watching, Maureen Booth, Maureen's World, Printmaking Courses Spain | Tagged Granada, Maureen Booth, People watching Granada, Plaza Nueva Granada, printmaking Spain | Leave a Comment »
May 27, 2016 by Michael Booth
Mike ran across a video on the web the other day and he immediately called me to have a look at it. It was an ad for Graydin , a coaching service (with offices in New York and London) that advises high schools around the world on ways of empowering their students. According to their website their service is founded on the premise of “Ask, don’t tell.”
As I sat down at the computer he said, “See what this reminds you of.” This fascinating video lasts less than three minutes but in that time it became clear to me what he was driving at. My reply to him was: “This is what I do.”
The truth is I never thought of myself as a coach, nor my work as coaching. I’ve been a printmaker for more than 30 years and a dozen years ago I began offering summer printmaking courses in my studio. As time went by my workshops turned more and more into mentoring for individual artists. It just seemed to make sense. Being able to give my undivided attention to an artist (whether a student, a beginning artist, or a full professor of art) and to work collaboratively for two straight weeks was so much more productive than a group workshop. We advanced so much faster and farther. And my students really noted–and appreciated–the difference.
So, if you look at the top of this page you’ll find a new subtitle under Printmaking Courses in Spain. It says “One-on-One Coaching for Print Artists.”
Posted in Coaching for printmakers, Maureen Booth, Maureens printmaking workshops, Printmaking Courses Spain, Printmaking Granada | Tagged Coaching for printmakers, Maureen Booth, printmaking in Granada, printmaking Spain, printmaking workshops | Leave a Comment »
May 25, 2016 by Michael Booth
May first every year is festive in Granada, but this year it was even moreso. Granadinos, including those of our pueblo, Pinos Genil, celebrated three fiestas on the same Sunday:
- Mothers’ Day (Día de la Madre)
- Labor Day (Día Internacional de los Trabajadores)
- The Day of the Cross (a Spanish rites of spring celebration that they refer to as El Día de la Cruz)
Any one of these commemorations can justify dressing up, going down to the village square, eating and drinking a little too much, singing, dancing, oogling the beautiful young people and generally getting a bit unruly.
What follows is a selection of photographs that Mike shot that day for his Somos Pineros.com (We’re from Pinos!) photo blog.
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Posted in Fiestas, Maureen's World, Maureens printmaking workshops, Pinos Genil, Printmaking Courses Spain | Tagged fiestas in Pinos Genil, Maureen Booth, printmaking Spain, printmaking workshops | Leave a Comment »
April 29, 2016 by Michael Booth
Lola Higgins arrived at Maureen’s studio a couple of weeks ago, a timid, uncertain recent graduate from the Edinburgh College of Art, the art department of the University of Edinburgh. She had made a few solar prints there but didn’t like neither the process nor the results very much.
Lola´s plan was to reproduce some of her photographs as high quality solarplate prints. When Maureen suggested going beyond mere reproduction, to start from scratch with freehand drawing in India ink on a laser acetate, Lola’s reaction was: “Draw? I can’t draw!”
With a little bit of encouragement Lola started drawing and never stopped. She went from strength to strength and, with Maureen’s help, turned her drawings into stunning solarplate prints. She finished up after 10 days with a portfolio with which the maestra affirms she should start visiting galleries in London, her home town. (See photos of the prints on the drying racks below.)
After Lola left, Maureen said to an artist friend, “I d0n’t think I’ve ever seen a young artist make so much progress in so little time.”
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Posted in Maureens printmaking workshops, Printmaking Courses Spain, Printmaking Granada, Workshops | Tagged Lola Blanche Higgins, Lola Higgins, Maureen Booth, printmaking Spain, printmaking workshops, solar-plate printmaking | Leave a Comment »
March 28, 2016 by Michael Booth
Our Big Fat Spanish Birthday Party
Bill and Puri took advantage of her family’s commercial fruit orchard and cortijo outside the Alpujarra village of Órgiva to stage Claudio’s ninth birthday party. Claudio was fully aware of the import of the day. As guests arrived he would inform them one by one: “It’s my birthday!”
The life of the party was Puri’s mother, Pura, who produced both a smashing paella and a giant pan of habas con jamón (just-picked baby broadbeans steeped in olive oil with thinly-sliced salt-cured ham and green onions–a religious experience on Easter Sunday), both cooked over an open fire como Dios manda. Maureen provided her legendary multi-story chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and whipped cream. This year she smothered it with gumdrop wild mice with chubby gumdrop tails, which were a big hit with young kids and old kids.
The guests included Puri’s children–Martín, Carmen and Elías–eight or ten cousins, and a slew of grandparents, aunts and uncles. The kids ran around like cabritos and the old timers, your correspondent included, sat around and ate too much, drank too much, and swapped medical histories.
It was a perfect day for a birthday party: good weather, good food, good company. The best news is that we only have to wait 364 days to do it again. Here’s the pictures:
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Posted in Maureen's World | Tagged Claudios birthday, Family birthday party, Maureens grandsons birthday | Leave a Comment »
March 27, 2016 by Michael Booth
The Printmaker from the Oakland Ghetto
Maryly took advantage of a tour of Andalusia with her writing group to tack a workshop with me on the end. She’s glad she did, as together we explored the surprising possibilities of solarplate printmaking and the creative printing of the resulting plates. Maryly was serious about it; she took copious notes.
One of the many stories Maryly had to tell, one that I found extremely interesting, was about her printmaking studio, located in a renovated neon sign factory turned into artists’ studios. It’s located in the middle of what she refers to as “the Oakland ghetto.” Asked if the neighbors were “artist friendly” she affirms, “The whole factory is walled and gated, and there’s space inside to park cars, so the artists don’t have much contact with the locals.” From here it sounds like an interesting setting for creative work.
Here are a few pictures Mike made during Maryly’s workshop.
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February 18, 2016 by Michael Booth
The printmaking continues and the results are gratifying
The TASIS artists and photographers surprised themselves with the quality of the work they produced in Maureen’s studio. Have a look:
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Hasta luego, TASIS. You’re brilliant.
Posted in Maureens printmaking workshops, Printmaking Granada, Printmaking in Spain, TASIS, Workshops | Tagged Granada, Maureen Booth, printmaking courses, printmaking Granada, printmaking Spain, TASIS in Spain | Leave a Comment »
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