‘Alone Together’ Launch Day

1 Jul

Saturday 1 July

A day of printmaking activity at MAKE Southwest to celebrate the launch of the print exhibition, Alone Together showing in the Riverside Gallery 1 July - 26 August 2023.

Find out more about the Alone Together exhibition HERE.

Printmaking Demonstrations

Jubilee Gallery | FREE Entry | NO Booking Required

To coincide with the opening of Alone Together, MAKE Southwest Maker Members Alissa Mihai and Niamh Geraghty-Morris will be running informal printmaking demonstrations throughout the day. This is an opportunity to learn more about the craft of printmaking and to meet two of the exhibiting makers in our Summer Show.

Both printmakers will be demonstrating some of the tools and techniques used in making prints and will be available to talk to visitors about their work.

Niamh Geraghty-Morris

11am- 1pm

Niamh will be demonstrating how she makes her reduction woodcuts from initial drawings in sketchbooks, examples of the stages of the process and the finished blocks and prints.

She will be carving a new block during the afternoon, using Japanese plywood and carving tools.

Reduction woodcut is a method of block printing in which each colour layer is taken from the same block. More wood is removed from the block for each layer and each colour is printed on top of the last. This means that an entire edition must be printed in one go – once you have carved into the block for the next layer, you can’t go back to print more.

Niamh’s prints are a mix of reduction woodcuts for the detail, combined with monoprinting to create a fluid painterly finish. She uses the printing process very much like paint. She works in layers, which means she will ink and print the plate many times to achieve the layering and depth and rich colour.

Niamh’s work as a printmaker is informed and influenced by her training and experience as a silversmith, often using the same tools to transfer the fine skills of etching and engraving precious metals to the printing block to create an image on paper.

Her work responds to the love of her surroundings, nature, intricate details noticed and moments captured. A contemplation on ecology and our relationship with our environment.

Niamh uses sketches, paintings, photographs, found objects, records smells and sounds as reference material and as a starting point for a new series of prints.

Alissa Mihai

2-4pm

Alissa works from home in her kitchen. She is primarily a relief printmaker and is largely self-taught with the help of several courses in the last few years.

Alissa is fascinated by people; the jobs they do and the hobbies they have, the pets they keep and the strange juxtapositions that daily life throws up. She has, in pursuing this, sat and drawn in lots of coffee shops, been the artist in residence for the North Devon Symphonia, watched and persuaded family members to hold still and let her photograph or sketch. She has always kept sketchbooks which are full of written ideas as well as drawings.

Inspiration comes from walking on Exmoor or the beach with the dog and thinking through the ideas, so although not generally a landscape artist it is time in the landscape which crafts the prints.

Alissa loves the whole process from drawing and carving the block to proofing and printing. She has a sense of humour and takes commissions - are they connected? Maybe and sometimes!

Alone Together Printmaking Workshops

Workshop Space | £2.50 | Booking Required

Plunge into printmaking with a trio of techniques led by SPIKED artists Leonie, Jess, and Prerna to coincide with their exhibition Alone Together in the Riverside Gallery.

In this workshop you will learn how to make a linocut print, a collagraph print, and a concertina folded artist’s book to display your prints in. Participants will work in small groups with each artist and groups will rotate throughout the workshop timeslot.

10am - 12.30pm [SOLD OUT]

1.30pm - 4pm [SOLD OUT]

We welcome both adults and children, but politely request that all children under the age of 13 years old are accompanied by an adult for the duration.

All materials will be provided and no experience of printmaking is necessary. All materials are provided, it is advisable to wear old clothes to the workshop, however aprons will be provided.

About SPIKED

SPIKED is an artists’ collective (Leonie Bradley ARE, Jess Bugler RCA and Prerna Chandiramani) creating installations exploring themes of communication and memory through printmaking. Each artist has previously been awarded the one-year Peter Reddick Bursary for Innovation in Relief Printmaking at Spike Print Studio in Bristol and brings with them a wide experience in printmaking from wood engraving, to linocut, collagraph and etching.