Innovations

Recently we enjoyed a family holiday in Boscastle, Cornwall; an absolutely beautiful place, with truly inspirational scenery, land & seascapes etc. Boscastle is the Cornish village which was pretty much destroyed by freak flooding about 5 years ago & much of the village has had to be re-built (indeed, I believe some renovation is on-going). The skills of the craftsmen employed & the use of local materials however is testament to Cornish traditions & resilience. Boscastle remains one of the most beautiful villages in the area (although naturally, it is not alone in that accolade).

I had signed up for the first day of a four day Master Class about a month after my visit to Cornwall, the Master Class being run by a truly inspirational printmaker, Alfons Bytautas of Edinburgh Printmakers. With this in mind, I was focussing my thoughts on natural images, seascapes etc, when an image presented itself in the form of Water (working title). I also have some rock face photographs which I would like to develop into a series, with the possibility of seascapes at a later date.

The time spent between the holiday & the course was spent working on the Water images in Photoshop, so that they were ready for the Photo Polymer Etching course, which has since been held.

It was a thoroughly informative day with background information on the innovative techniques, discourse on what is & isn’t ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘non-toxic’ printmaking (the answer by the way - there’s no such thing, just marginally less toxic materials) & of course, the opportunity to create a plate & print it. My plate threw up more questions than answers but it was all relative & in so doing has given me more ideas in which to try out ideas & manipulate the image. I can’t wait to get back into the studio & try it again, with hopefully, vastly improved results! You can see mine & other printmakers attempts at http://masterclass2009.greendoor-printmaking.co.uk/gallery-print.html