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!

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

Recent goings-on at WYPW

Well it's been a very busy few months here at WYPW, hence not keeping up-to-date with the blog posts for a while. We have had lots of courses and children's workshops running, some excellent exhibitions, and acquired a few pieces of exciting new equipment!

Here are a few images to illustrate what we've been up to!

Hard at work printing on the Screen Printed Gig Posters course with Graham Pilling and Cameron Steward...so popular we are running it again in July...more details here

...and the one of the finished posters

Demonstration of drypoint printing at the first Creative Cafe in February...more of that to come soon! (You may notice we all look a little chilly...hence the next couple of photos!)

Old boiler out...

...New boiler in!

The lovely David from Harry Rochat installing our new (well, lovingly re-conditioned) Imperial Press.

The new press in situ - looks at home already. Any name suggestions?!

WYPW at the 2012 Leeds Artist Book Fair

And our new craft cabinet in the Gallery

Lots more in store in the coming months, including craft fairs, exhibitions, and a new programme of courses which you can see on the courses of this blog, or on our website http://www.wypw.org/vocational_courses_at_west_yorkshire_print_workshop.html...phew! More posts soon!

20:20 Print Exchange 2011

After the success of last year’s 20:20 Print Exchange organised by Hot Bed Press, 10 members of WYPW have again taken part this year, to each produce an original, limited edition print on 20 x 20cm paper. It was really exciting to see all the prints being produced in the WYPW workshops, and I think we’ve got a really great variety of styles and techniques this year. They have now been boxed up and sent off to Hot Bed Press, and each artist and workshop which has taken part will receive back a box of 20 randomly selected prints – one of their own and 19 others. There were around 15 other workshops from around the UK and Ireland taking part this year, and it was really good to be involved in such a big project.

West Yorkshire Print Workshop will be displaying 40 of these prints – including all 10 produced by WYPW members – in the downstairs corridor gallery, from FRIDAY 25TH NOVEMBER, which un-coincidentally is also the date of the FLOURISH PRINT AWARD prizegiving evening from 6.30 – 8.30pm, so you can come and see the 20:20 prints at the same time!

Here are a few images from the Photopolymer and Solar Plates Workshop which tool place on Friday 7th, Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th October. There were some stunning images produced, which show the subtlety of marks you can obtain using these processes. We will be holding another 'Introduction to Photo-Etching' 1-day course in February 2012. Visit the courses page on our website for more details: http://www.wypw.org/courses.html

A print taken directly from the photopolymer film
- very rich tones of black can be obtained using this technique



A solar plate relief printing block made by exposing
 a photograph printed onto transparent film onto the
plate using a UV light source, then developing it in water.



A print taken from the above block

 A print from an etched zinc plate - the photopolymer
film acts as an acid-resist during the etching process

 

Very pure colours can be obtained using these
processes as the polymer surface does not react with the ink
as some metals do.



An image drawn onto grained glass is then exposed onto a solar plate with
UV light - creating almost lithographic-quality prints

A print created from the above drawing using a solar plate



Developing the solar plate in water. The plate is gently
rubbed with a paintbrush to remove areas of polymer which
have not been hardened by the UV light



A print from a solar plate made using a photograph
containing very subtle tones - much of the intricate detail
in an image is retained using this process

Test plates

A print taken from an metal plate etched using photopolymer
film as an acid-resist.

A long overdue update...

It's been so long since our last update there are too many things to mention! We have had some fantastic artists in to run workshops, including Catherine Sutcliffe-Fuller to run the 'Working with Lino' course, and Mark Graver who ran the 'Acrylic-Resist Etching' weekend, along with all the regular courses, Children's workshops, HOST weekend, and the general comings and goings of open-access. It's been busy!

I have also been researching platen presses for the workshop, and can now finally reveal that WYPW has purchased one! It is an old Cope and Sherwin Imperial Press, currently in the process of being re-conditioned by the fantastic Harry f. Rochat Ltd , and should be installed in the downstairs print room by the end of the year. It's very exciting and will bring a whole new area of printmaking to WYPW, as during the summer we also purchased some letterpress equipment, so look out for a new 'Introduction to Letterpress' course here in the New Year!

So here are a few images from my travels and some of the excellent workshops which have run here in the last few months...

Acrylic-Resist Etching with Mark Graver

 


Mark Graver demonstrating inking a plate

   

Pouring the acrylic ground over the aluminium plate



painting ink onto the grounded plate



Etching the plate in Copper Sulphate solution 



The surface of an etched plate

 

Once the soft resist is applied it is worked on by wiping back to reveal the metal underneath



Etching Weekend with Kate Desforges



Wiping a copper etching plate before printing




A printed open-bite aluminium plate

 

Printing the etching plates




Open-bite etching plates printed with colour rollovers

 


Soft ground etching  on zinc with colour rollover

 

Soft ground etching on zinc



Hard ground and soft ground etchings on copper



Open-bite etching on aluminium



Trip to Scalby to Bracken Press to see printmaker Michael Atkin

A few months back I went to see Michael Atkin to find out a bit more about relief presses and have a go at using his large Albion press. His studio is amazing and filled with printmaking equipment. It was the first time I had used a relief press, and I was surprised to find that the process was so much quicker and easier than using an etching press. Michael was a wealth of knowledge about all things print-related, and the visit helped me enormously in deciding what sort of press to buy for WYPW, so thank you Michael!