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Posts Tagged ‘printmaking Spain’

Madrid Artists Discover the Nuances of Solarplate Printmaking in Granada

Posted in Coaching for printmakers, Maureens Creative Printing, Maureens Printmaking Spain, Obra grafica Granada, Printmaking Courses Spain, Printmaking Granada, tagged Maruja Isabel Carmen, Printmaking Courses Granada, printmaking Spain, Solarplate Printmaking Spain on July 11, 2018| 1 Comment »

Three Experienced Artists Discover Solar Plate Secrets in My Studio

Maruja Cantos, Carmen Lopez-Nieto and Isabel Manteca left yesterday after spending time with me in my studio exploring the creative possibilities of solarplate printmaking. Solarplate has an undeserved bad reputation because it is so often limited to simply reproducing photographs, which reduces the results of the technique to bad photocopies.

For me the secret of quality solarplate prints is to create your images directly on the acetate, taking care to balance the contrasts and assure clear linework. What you do not achieve on the acetate will not appear in the print. I also place a lot of emphasis on the creative printing of the plates. There are so many options when it comes to printing solar plates.

Working with professional artists, given their years of experience with images, becomes an intensive collaborative experience. It’s also fun.

On the last morning, Mike and I accompanied them to the village churrería for a breakfast of churros, the Spanish version of irresistibly unhealthy fried batter. Breakfast ended with the traditional flurry of Spanish goodbye hugs and kisses and they were off, all promising to come back soon. I hope they do. They were all such delightful people.

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Printmaking with Kids

Posted in Maureens printmaking workshops, Printmaking Courses Spain, Printmaking with Kids, tagged Children Printmaking Granada, Maureen Booth printmaker, printmaking Granada, printmaking Spain, Printmaking with Kids on November 1, 2017| 1 Comment »

Children Loose in My Studio with Indelible Felt Pens

Our friends ask me frequently, “When are you going to do a workshop for children?I would love for our kids to participate.” So last Saturday I invited a group of friends’ kids, along with our own grandchildren, to a day of printmaking in my studio. Some of them didn’t really know why they were here; they were sent. Some were frankly reluctant at first.

How does one overcome that reluctance and get them centered on the work. I found out a long time ago that it’s not so complicated as it seems. You put a sheet of acetate in one hand and a felt pen in the other and tell them to do whatever they like. No art teacher ever told them that before and it makes them feel empowered. That, and seeing their first print, maintains their enthusiasm.

Aside: One of the fathers was there when I passed out the materials, actually a well-known local painter. He stood over his daughter and started giving her instructions. I suggested he might be more comfortable out in the sunshine and she immediately got seriously to work. Moral to the story: Children are actually people and people like freedom.

After creating their first image, seeing it burned on a solarplate and run through an etching press onto paper, they wanted to do more printss. I couldn’t keep up with them. The only way to slow them down was to announce lunch. What do kids like to eat? Anything followed by chocolate pudding.

They all went home with a couple of prints, some more, and a new experience under their belts. The parents were also delighted. Some of them actually expressed an interest in doing some prints themselves.

Photography by Miguel Ángel Martínez and Mike Booth

Thanks for commenting and sharing.

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Frances’s Goodbye Message

Posted in Frances Parker printmaker, Maureen Booth printmaker, Printmaking Granada, Printmaking in Spain, tagged Frances Parker, Maureen Booth printmaker, printmaking Granada, printmaking Spain on August 9, 2017| 1 Comment »

Good morning Frances

I found this note below written in my visitors’ book a few days after Frances and Mike Parker left. It made me so proud I want to share it with you.

Teachers are born with a gift and you have this gift in bucket loads.

How can I ever thank you enough for your energy, talent, passion, wisdom and generosity? I have learnt so much from you in such a short time. Not just about technique and process, much deeper lessons in how to live an artistic and creative life, lessons that I will take with me and draw on to enrich my work and relationships.

The studio space, the adorable Gallinero, the village, the river and most of all Mike and your hospitality and generosity have made our visit so memorable.

Frances & Mike Parker

Thank you for your too-kind words, Frances. I wish you and Mike the greatest success wherever you go, whatever you do. I suspect you’re going to etch a deep mark on Australian printmaking.

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Frances Parker Hits the Ground Running

Posted in Frances Parker, Maureen Booths Studio, Pomegranate Editions, Printmaking Courses Spain, tagged Francis Parker, Obra grafica Granada, printmaking courses Spain, printmaking Granada, printmaking Spain on August 5, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Not having done fine art prints before she’s making up for lost time.
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Tasmanian artist, Frances Parker, and her husband, Mike, arrived last Sunday. Monday morning at nine she stepped into my studio and, after a 15-minute introduction, sat down to make her first print. At the end of that day she saw it come out of the etching press, having made not a single wrong move. The print could have been made by a professional. It was clear to me then that she was an experienced and talented artist who had been needing to make fine-art prints for a long time.

It’s the end of the week now, and we’ve just put the last of her work in the press so she can take it home nice and flat. Her new house includes beautiful studio space and a nearby friend has an etching press where she can also work. I’m looking forward to seeing the prints she produces over the next few years.
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Frances and Mike had unusually good luck as the dates of their visit coincided with the annual “Fiestas Patronales” in our village. (You can see my husband Mike’s photos of one night of the fiesta here.) So every evening there were lots of activities, lots of music and dancing and lots of exotic tapas with the beer, in all an intensive course in fiesta.

Photos by Mike Booth and Mike Parker

.Thanks for sharing.

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Phil Clark and Hilary Vernon-Smith Wanted to Get Some Work Done

Posted in Coaching for printmakers, Maureens printmaking workshops, Printmaking Courses Spain, Printmaking Granada, tagged Hilary Vernon-Smith, Maureen Booth masterprintmaker, Phil Clark, Printmaking Courses Granada, printmaking Spain on September 23, 2016| Leave a Comment »

“Rest? Nooo… We want to get some work done!”

And so they did. If they had been beavers they would have dammed the Thames in two weeks. Hillary, recently retired as the head set designer at the National Theatre in London, is the methodical one and Phil, a theatre director and playwrite, is exhuberant. They are also serious printmakers. This is the sixth workshop they are doing together.

I usually try to find ways of challenging the artists who come to my workshops, but these two challenged me. With their print experience and their formidable talents they had quite clear ideas of what they wanted to achieve and were constantly posing questions, suggesting their own solutions, generally keeping me on my toes.

It was a marvelously intensive two weeks for all three of us. Phil even participated in our village’s annual painting contest. They are leaving on Sunday, and are taking home with them enough prints to mount a small exhibit, should they decide to do that.

It’s been great working with both of you, Hilary and Phil. I hope you come back soon.

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London Printmaker Nikki Braunton Chase, Drops by on a Splendid Summer Morning

Posted in Maureen Booth, Maureen's World, Nikki Braunton Chase, Pomegranate Editions, Printmaking Courses Spain, Printmaking Granada, tagged Maureen Booth, Nikki Braunton Chase, printmaking Spain, printmaking workshops on August 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Nikki Braunton, on holiday in Órgiva at the foot of the Sierra Alpujarra (the seaward slope of our Sierra Nevada) with her husband, John Chase and their two girls, came for a visit the other morning. We had only known Nikki through Facebook, so it was lovely when they showed up en persona. I made a chocolate cherry cake–which was still warm from the oven, but they didn’t seem to mind–and we had coffee and tea on Mike’s new table out under the grapevines.

Nikki and John wanted to see my studio so we spent some time down there. John and Mike are both photographers, so they got on like a house afire. The two girls, ages 8 and 12. seemed interested in everything–studio, prints, cats, Cuca–and withstood the boring conversations of older people admirably.

Both John and Nikki work at the Museum of London, he as a photographer, she in the photo archives. “I only do three days a week,” Nikki says, “so it leaves me time for printmaking.” She works at the Greenwich Printmakers open studio. Nikki and John have fallen for Órgiva and have spend their last few summer holidays there. So, we hope to see them back here next year. Happy printmaking, Nikki.

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Here Are My First New Miniature Prints

Posted in Coaching for printmakers, Maureen Booth, Maureens printmaking workshops, Miniature Prints Spain, Printmaking in Spain, tagged Maureen Booth, Maureen Booth printmaker, printmaking courses Spain, printmaking Spain on July 16, 2016| Leave a Comment »

In recent months a couple of my galleries in Granada have been asking, “Could you make us some miniature prints?” These are my first proofs.

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A Summer Morning Flowers in Our Garden in Granada

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 on June 26, 2016| Leave a Comment »

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.

P.S. This one’s for cousin Carole.

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Brenda’s Back! II/II

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 on June 22, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Here’s the second half of the photographs from the IB Bremen printmaking workshop 2016.

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A Summer Evening in Plaza Nueva

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 on June 15, 2016| Leave a Comment »

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: