It’s that time of year again…  the Festive Open Studios - which is on Sunday 11 December this year.  A group of ELP artists will be selling their prints, cards, printed cushions etc on that day.  There will be warming mulled wine and tasty nibbles to enjoy in a sparkly studio - so get into the festive spirit and come along and have a browse, sip some wine and maybe even buy some early Xmas presents!”

Workshop leader Aiste Ramunaite

“In this workshop we learn how to use linocut techniques to capture the spirit and character of our subject. A portrait usually conveys something hidden in the visual sense, the history of a person, their secret or emotional life. How do you reveal and represent these hidden aspects and blend them with the mirror’s ‘reality’? The Portrait linocut workshop explores closely every angle of technique and character. We start by drawing directly onto lino…”

Workshop participant Sean Lingwood says: 

 “In my self-portrait I wanted to achieve a level of contrast to express the complexity and diversity of my own (and others peoples) personalities. The idea was to mix a very clean graphic plate with a very detailed and expressive plate, then finish off with an abstract shape that helped put the person (me) into a location or situation. I experimented with various colours to get the right level of harmony and contrast.”

Workshop participant Natasha Davies says:

“I’ve barely touched upon linocut before so I well and truly threw myself in the deep end trying to do a three colour linoprint! Before I began I had an idea of the feel of the portrait that I wanted to achieve, but as soon as I started cutting I discovered it really was something that evolves by itself! Daring to print different colours for each of the ‘plates’ created surprising results and showed me that you never know what might happen unless you experiment.”

This summer artists from East London Printmakers will be running a wide variety of workshops in Italy.  Situated in a medieval castle near Rimini, Opificio della Rosa is a printmaking studio dedicated to low environmental impact techniques whilst facilitating traditional and innovative printmaking methods.  The techniques being taught include woodcut, photopolymer and photoetching, linocut, collagraph and bookbinding.  For a full list and descriptions visit the Opificio della Rosa website

The workshops took place for the first time last summer and were thought up and organised by Umberto Giovannini.  They were such a success that we are running them again this year and have expanded the number of workshops on offer.

The workshops are suitable for all abilities and equipment and materials will be provided.  Workshops will be taught in English with Italian translators.

Opificio della Rosa is in Montefiore Conca, close to Rimini in the region of Emilia-Romagna.  The area is renowned for its rich history and delicious food and is within easy reach of Florence, Bologna and Venice.  Montefiore itself is a small, friendly town on top of a mountain looking out towards the adriatic coastline.  Rimini airport is 30 minutes away by car.

For workshop prices, visit the website.  There are concessions for those under 26 and there is a 10% discount if you book before 10th May.

The East London Printmakers wayzgoose took place on the 4th December in the studio. Around 20 members attended and helped to print the ‘exquisite corpse’ linocut - a joint effort comprising 24 separate lino blocks which joined up to make one large print. Thanks to Peter Rapp for organising the printing and Sue Corke and Katja Rosenberg for organising the party, which including an exquisite corpse feast.

Last night’s launch party for the 2010 box set was a great success.  We had big crowds thanks to being part of the First Thursdays event, which happens once a month when galleries across the East End open their doors late into the night.

On display were 31 brand new prints from this year’s box set and prints from the previous three years were available to buy at a special price of just £20.

Lots of visitors took advantage of the opportunity to get some early Christmas present shopping done and left with bundles of ready-wrapped prints under their arms.

The exhibition continues until 6pm on Monday at 242 Gallery.  For directions, visit the 242 Gallery website.

Prints from the last three years were displayed in wine crates on the wall beneath the designs for the box lids.

ELP’s Jacki Baxter and Gill Saunders of the V&A discuss the works.

Box Set 2010 is now on display at 242 Gallery, just a short walk from the studio.  This year’s set is the most diverse and ambitious yet and for the first time there was no fixed image size, which gives it a much more varied feel.  

Each print is available individually for £40 and the full set of 31 prints is £950.  All proceeds from sales go to ELP and will be put towards future projects for the members and continuing to improve the studio facilities.

The prints form previous years are also available for £20 each and there are also a few complete box sets still available.

The exhibition runs until Sunday 8th November, 12pm to 6pm.

First Thursdays Launch Party Thursday 4th November, 6pm to 9pm.

242 Gallery
242 Bethnal Green Road
London E2 9DA
(Opposite Cambridge Heath station at the end of Hackney Road) 

Thanks to John Purcell for once again supplying us with the paper.

Over the last few weeks ELP members have been busy editioning their box set prints for this year. The boxes will be put together next Tuesday ready for the launch at 242 Gallery on 3rd - 8th November.  Here are a couple of photos to whet your appetites…

Wuon Gean Ho editioning her screenprint

Wuon Gean’s prints in the racks

Box sets wrapped and ready to be collated

Had a big tidy up today - I think the studio’s looking great.  These are my attempts to take some arty photos around the studio…