#SOL17: Mono Print Painting

I.

On Saturday, I took a class in Mono Print Painting taught by Nathalie Kalbach & Birgit Koopsen in Manhattan. We learned the basics of mixed media mono printing by playing with a Gelli Printing plate, acrylic paint, a brayer, and some paper. Diane Ackerman said, "Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning" and I found this to be true during the workshop.  Throughout the day, I simply played with color and image as I learned new art processes.

Below are two pages of prints I made. I imagine I will use portions of these papers in collage work I later do.

 


II.

Mono Print composition by Werkman. (from here)

Then Birgit demonstrated one technique based on the work of  H.N. Werkman. To create the composition we needed to think about the layers of the work. What is foregrounded in the image we are making? What is directly behind?  What is at the back? And then we needed to create multiple copies of the work on paper, cut out the different elements, and print from the foreground to the background, using masks to conceal already printed images and reveal the portion of the composition that was being printed.

Birgit demonstrating mono print painting

Nathalie then built from that work, demonstrating how she creates a mono print painting using a single masking process. She also showed us how she can alter the print using stamps and stencils. Birgit then showed us how she alters the print using self made tools and we then tried our hand at creating our own stamps.

I love learning new ways of making art and the mono printing composition work was brand new to me. I had never used a gelli plate before and enjoyed learning how to use one.


III.

Here are two examples I composed during the workshop.

(M.A. Reilly, 2017)

(M.A. Reilly, 2017)