Thursday 26 April 2012

Norman Ackroyd RA exhibition and demonstration

A couple of weeks ago we were very priviledged to welcome Norman Ackroyd RA to WYPW for the preview of his exhibition and a fantastic demonstration of his working process. The demonstration took place in the gallery space, so it was really great to watch him work surrounded by his inspiring etchings, and amazing to see how the images on the walls were created from start to finish.

It was also lovely to hear Norman talk about his work, both technically and artistically, and realise that both are so closely linked - his inspiration is taken from awe-inspiring coastal landscapes, and the way he uses the spit-bite technique to etch his plates seems somehow to imitate the dramatic landscape which it describes. As Norman also has family connections with this area of West Yorkshire, it was great to hear him talk about memories of when he was younger.

Norman has also very kindly sent us a proof print of one of the plates he made during the workshop, which we will be framing and putting up in the current exhibition. We will be keeping our copy to put up in pride of place in the print room once the exhibition is finished, but the print is in an edition of 25 and available for sale unframed for £300 from the WYPW gallery. The exhibition continues until 19th May.

So a very big thank you to Norman for a thoroughly inspiring weekend!












Wednesday 18 April 2012

First Steps in Etching course...

Here are a few images from the recently-completed 'First Steps in Etching' evening class. Everyone on the course made some excellent prints, and the possibilities of each technique are really well illustrated here. Thanks everyone for making it so enjoyable!

Etching on zinc using hard and soft ground by Darren Reynolds


Open bite etching on aluminium with colour rollover by Alison Ashbee

Soft ground etching on zinc by Liz Walker

Our fantastic course volunteer Charlie

Open-bite etching on alumium with burnishing by Paul Walsh