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Posts Tagged ‘printmaking Spain’

A New Take on What I Do

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 on May 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »

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.”

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What a Triple Fiesta Day in Our Village Looks Like

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 on May 25, 2016| Leave a Comment »

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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Lola Blanche Higgins–A Bright Light from London via Edinburgh

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 on April 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »

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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More TASIS in Spain–February 18, 2016

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 on February 18, 2016| Leave a Comment »

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.

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Martyn, Frank and the TASIS Artists Are Back

Posted in Maureen Booth, Printmaking Courses Spain, TASIS, tagged Maureen Booth, printmaking courses, printmaking Granada, printmaking Spain, printmaking workshops, TASIS on February 17, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night…

We’ve had a bit of all that in the past few days but it didn’t slow down the art studets and professors from The American School in Switzerland (TASIS). Twelve students from Italy, Turkey, Mexico, the USA, Russia, Afghanistan, UK, and France have come to Maureen’s studio for an intensive five-day introduction to solarplate printmaking.

Art professor Martyn Dukes and photography professor Frank Long have returned this year with another crop of young artists and photographers. Some of the photographers were asking themselves what they were doing in a printmaking course, but when they saw the first prints made by tracing over photographs on acetates, burning them on photosensitive plates and putting the plates through an etching press on beautiful paper, they quickly changed their minds.

Here’s the first snapshots from day one. Tomorrow we’ll take a look at some of the work they’ve done.

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My First Print Portfolio–And Yours

Posted in Grabado Granada, Maureen Booth, Maureens printmaking workshops, Obra grafica Granada, Printmaking Courses Spain, tagged Maureen Booth printmaker, Print Portfolio tips, printmaking Granada, printmaking Spain, printmaking workshops Granada, printmaking workshops Spain on January 4, 2016| 2 Comments »

Your first portfolio is a milestone. This is the point where you’ve practiced enough printmaking techniques to make a respectable showing with your first formal project. Your confidence has grown to an almost viable level—along with an equally-heightened case of nerves and apprehension. This is the big time. What subject should you choose? What techniques should you employ for this first effort? If I may offer my advice, choose a subject that is familiar to you, something you love and is close at hand. As for techniques, keep it simple. You’re just starting out. There’s plenty of time to get fancy as you go along.

Shall I tell you about my first portfolio? It was 1978 and my maestro, José García Lomas (Pepe Lomas to his friends), suggested that I might be ready to make my first portfolio of prints. I had been studying with him at the Rodríguez-Acosta Foundation in Granada for more than two years. Pepe offered to guide me through process of making the portfolio. What a luxury that was.

He was delighted when I told him I had chosen a nonsense poem, The Owl and the Pussycat, by the English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, Edward Lear. This was a poem that, for some reason, I remembered vividly from my childhood. Pepe agreed with me that it offered splendid visual possibilities.

I must confess that the five plates that I created for The Owl and the Pussycat were not precisely simple. I worked on them for six months, pulling untold proof prints. Encouraged all along by my maestro, who wanted to see me show off the techniques he had taught me, techniques that I had practiced every weekday morning for more than two years, I went to work enthusiastically. So the etched zinc plates incorporated line work, aquatint, and soft ground. The Rodríguez-Acosta workshop had a wonderful big aquatint box with paddle bellows and we were still in the age of immortality. I suspect we all breathed a lot more resin than was good for us.

Before I even touched the first plate I did sketches for all five of them. Any comments Pepe made were always limited to technical considerations, as he always scrupulously respected his students’ artistic criteria. I started by varnishing five zinc plates and lightly etching in the basic drawings, then working the plates all up together starting with the aquatint. Though all the plates were different, this approach insured some degree of coherence across the whole portfolio.

We decided on an edition of 50 portfolios and 50 loose sets. Multiply that by five etchings plus a cover illustration and it adds up to 600 prints. Pepe insisted that the whole job be done by Angel and Pepillo, the workshop’s two printing technicians. The artists at the Foundation seldom touched the etching presses. While they did that I went off to find an offset print shop to print the cover text and colophon.

I presented The Owl and the Pussycat along with other work in an exhibition at Granada’s wonderful Palacio de la Madraza, the 14th-century building opposite the cathedral. La Madraza housed Granada’s first university and belongs to the University of Granada today.

This was the most successful portfolio I ever did.

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Looking Back with Love–Chapter 9

Posted in Featured Posts, Maureen's World, Workshops, tagged Bernice Strawn, Maureen Booth printmaker, Maureen Booth studio, Mel Strawn, printmaking in Granada, printmaking Spain, Robyn Smith, Vesna Pantelic, Zahra Buali on May 14, 2015| 1 Comment »

Mel & Bernice Strawn, Salida, Colorado, USA

Mel and Bernice Strawn are a young couple whose entire lives have been dedicated to art. He taught at universities in Michigan, Colorado and, I think, Chicago. She is a painter and sculptor with a long trajectory of incredibly imaginative and delicate work. When Mel retired from teaching they made their home outside Salida, Colorado, high in the Rockies, where they still live. Mel has the honor of being one of the world’s very first digital artists.

He and B came to the Gallinero and my studio in February of 2011 to work on solarplate prints. Mel had already done some solar work but, tireless researcher that he is, he wanted to delve further. Working with them was a delight and a learning experience for me as Mel questioned and experimented every step of the way, while B did what she is: pure creativity.

We’re still in touch via email and Mel is still experimenting with new solar plates. (The manufacturers should supply him with plates and pay him for publishing his findings!) Thanks for coming, Mel and B. It was a pleasure to meet and work with you. You’re two wonderful role models for the creative life.

Here’s a longer article on the Strawns from the Colorado Central Magazine.

From the visitors’ book: “My husband, Mel, and I have stepped out of the cold February weather of Colorado to enjoy the sun on the little deck to draw, work on prints and sip a little afternoon wine. The view across the valley to the south dips to the River Genil and then up the steep terraced hillside carpeted with green and glowing with blooming almond trees. The Booths have cultivated an exotic garden here which immediately captivated me. The local nopal, prickly pear cactus clumps, are fascinating and I did several prints based on those forms. In Maureen’s studio you can try out different approaches to printmaking and with her help you can find one that relates to the direction of your art. Maureen and Mike are very generous in their concerns for your comfort and the success of your art goals. We couldn’t have asked for more caring and attentive hosts.

Bernice and Mel Strawn, March 2011

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Looking Back with Love, A Studio Retrospective–Chapter 2

Posted in Featured Posts, Granada, Maureen's World, Workshops, tagged Abbie Luck, Karoline Piedra, Lorna Ryan-Burden, Maureen Booth, Maureen studio retrospective, printmaking courses Spain, printmaking Granada, printmaking Spain on February 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Abbie Luck, London, UK

At the time Abbie came to my workshop, in 2005 I think, she had just gotten a job as art teacher at a fancy girls’ school in London and was eager to expand her repertoire of techniques. She took naturally to solarplate printmaking and did some interesting work while she was here. She liked solarplate particularly as it was something she could teach her students without getting involved with acid and resins. She quickly made friends with Karoline Piedra, the American artist from Massachusetts who was on holiday from her day job in Switzerland. That’s the two of them below, captured on a day that Mike and his mate, Curro, were doing some electronic flash tests that somehow got mixed with a wine tasting. That’s probably why the two girls seem to glisten in the photograph.

From a comment by Abbie on my Printmaking Courses in Spain blog: “Thank you for everything. I am leaving with a wealth of knowledge, but also wonderfully relaxed. You have been so welcoming. I have come to feel really at home in your studio and in Granada. I couldn’t have asked for a better working holiday. I will most definitely be back to visit.”

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