Team Building workshop with The Soil Association

I held this one at Hamilton House for twelve lovely people who work at the Soil Association.

The Folk House…a little bit of magic tucked away down a little alleyway...

...up Park Street in Bristol. In case you haven't heard of Bristol Folk House, it's definitely worth a visit. It's a beautiful place in central Bristol, an adult education centre, it provides a variety of part-time day and evening classes and courses including: Arts & Crafts, Pottery, Writing, Languages, Music, Dance, Drama, Fitness, Personal Development and more.

The Folk House is a self-funding charity that aims to help the local community take part in ‘learning for pleasure’ courses in a friendly, relaxed environment.

They hold regular art exhibitions in the lush café bar, which also serves delicious organic, locally sourced food….Oh YEA…The month of July will see the cafe walls covered in my prints. Original monoprints will be displayed, many of them I produced in India and are of places in India. 

And here are a few snaps from the most recent course I delivered called Monoprinting with Stencils. Thanks to the lovely participants for letting me take photos of their work.

If you like what you see you can book a place by going onto the Folk House website and clicking on Printmaking. Then it's 'Monoprinting with Stencils'. I run a course and a day workshop on a Saturday. Complete beginners warmly welcomed. 

Workshop's with Mount Batten School

 I spent two day’s with year 10 student’s of Mount Batten School, teaching them my process of monoprinting with stencils. 1 day per class. We worked with their theme of natural forms. Here are a few photos of some of the lovely work produced. (There was loads of lovely work, but I couldn’t get a photo of it all)…

The Art Troupe

Have you heard about it yet? Well if not you should certainly check out the swish new website and read about the creative types bumbling around Bristol and their creatives offerings.

http://www.thearttroupe.com 

I recently ran a printmaking workshop with The Art Troupe in Hamilton House, Bristol.
You can book me or any of the other artists listed on the website for pretty much any group situation,  (e.g. corporate event, birthday, children's party, team building, hen party). It's an incredibly enriching activity and a really lovely way to de-stress and work alongside your mates/colleagues doing something a bit different.
Heres a few snaps of the fun evening.

You can also enquire about attending a workshop as an individual. We will try to create a date that a group of about 8 or so strangers can also make!

Get in touch by visiting The Art Troupe website. 

My printmaking workshop at the Arnolfini

On Saturday 25^th of January I led a printmaking workshop as part of the We Are Family day at The Arnolfini, in Bristol, relating to their current exhibition by Joëlle Tuerlinckx. It was a busy, fun four hours.

I had some great volunteers helping me manage the budding artists, around 30 of them at a time and about 100 people over the afternoon.

People of all ages got to try a selection of three different printmaking techniques.

On the first table was a collection of different materials, from foam to leaves to cardboard, which you could cut out and arrange on your plate to create a collagraph to print from.  

The second table was monoprinting with stencils, based on how I make my own work and the third table was drawing on the back of paper, on top of a layer of ink, to get an inky drawing on the reverse.

The three techniques could also be combined to create a multi-layered print.

Thanks for having me Arnolfini.

My next workshop for people from 16+ is at Hamilton House on Feb 11^th from 17.30-20.30. Please scroll down my blog here for more details.

Woodland inspired Monopinting with stencils

Tuesday 11^th Feb 2014 / 17.30-20.30

This is a workshop based on the theme of ancient woodland, where participants learn a unique printing technique, which is easy to do at home, without needing specific printing facilities or expensive materials. The process starts with a rough sketch/design. 

This design is then cut into stencils using a craft knife. 

Beautiful colours of ink are then mixed and a durathene roller is used to apply ink through the gaps in the stencils, also referred to as pochoir. 
We will experiment with layering the inks to achieve different textures and effects to create a woodland-inspired print which you can take home. 

The participants also have the choice to work their designs onto a set of five greetings cards to take away with them. 

Its a three hour workshop, with all materials provided for £25. 

Its advisable to wear clothing you don't mind getting ink on, or bring an apron. 

If you have any woodland inspired imagery to jog your imagination on the day then please bring that. 

To book on you can pay securely over paypal, if you visit this blog.
To get to my workshop, scroll down to the very bottom and click buy now. 

Hope to see you there

Printmaking Workshop – Christmas cards

This Wednesday I led another workshop. It was great fun and since the festive season is fast approaching the focus was on making your very own hand-printed christmas cards.

There were some great ideas utilising traditional Christmas symbols with a modern twist, using bright colours.

Everyone who attended the workshop got to take away 5 greetings cards with them, which they had printed by hand, using stencils they had cut from their drawings.

This was all done in the beautiful surrounding of The Print Shop, in Quakers Friars, Bristol.

Two lovely students, travelled from Southampton to take part.

The next workshop I’m doing will be held on November 27^th. Come along and learn how to print your own Christmas cards at home this year. 
It's £25 for a three hour session, all materials provided, (as it's nearly christmas, feel free to bring along nibbles or wine) You can find more information on The Print Shop blog. Or you can book on by emailing printshopbristol@gmail.com

Days 20, 21, 22. The final days of printing

Wednesday was the start of my final big print here at Chhaap. Wow, I can’t believe it’s coming to an end. I wanted a change from the lush scenery and couldn’t forget the cows. How could you, they number more than 150 million and they roam anywhere they please. Many a time has my rickshaw swerved out the way of cow casually crossing the street. They have a lot of attitude.

Day 21 was actually the final day of printing. I had finished my cow print and decided I wanted to just let loose, have fun and make a mess. So I combined the stencils I had collated from all my prints and made some smaller images and cards. I did also start on that second print of the Palm Trees. The first print I did, but with slightly different colours. This one will have to be completed in the UK after I ship the big parcel of my work home.

There was also time to visit some more studios, meet a few more artists and invite them to my exhibition on Sunday. There are over 700 full time artists in Baroda! It’s great to be in a place with art everywhere.

Day 22. I got on a bus to Ahmedabad at 5.00am! I saw some of the oldest parts, with lots of character and beautiful architecture. Then a visit to Ghandi Ashram and Konoria Arts Centre, where a talk by the brilliant printmaker Jyoti Bhatt was taking place. Shame it wasn’t in English! But I did get to see lots of his work and check out the amazing print making studios.

Day 13 and 14:

I wanted to try something more urban, with lots of angles and straight lines. This print is from a photo I took in Ranthambore. We couldn’t believe it when there was a pool there, luxury compared to the places we had stayed previously.

 It was tricky drawing this one, I’m not usually one for rulers. So in the past two days I have managed to draw and print the image. There are a lot of images I have floating around in my head that I want to print, but I only have a week and a half left until my exhibition!

This is the print in progress:

Day 11 and 12

Printing the Everest print. Another one to hang on the line.

This time I added some line detail with pencil, to show the bristles on the trees and the delicate angular shapes on the mountain. I also printed directly onto Fabriano paper this time, this didn’t affect the quality of the image and I found the ink didn’t go as far. It’s just on thicker, more durable paper.