Experimental Collagraph Print Workshop with Charles Shearer – Weekend 25/26 January 2020

This two day workshop will introduce you to a printing process that would suit anyone wishing to experiment and develop their creative ideas. No experience of print should be a barrier though some dexterity with a craft knife may prove an advantage.

Saturday: Following an introductory talk you will be instructed in all aspects of collagraphic plate production, from techniques in drawing and cutting using a range of tools, some adapted or adopted specifically for this purpose, through to the application of textured materials that give this process its unique character. You will also learn about the inks and papers and machines involved in generating these exciting images.

Sunday: Further development of ideas and images through the day following demonstration of intaglio process and the application of textured material including carborundum powder, cloth, embossed papers, tape and feathers etc. Charles has also promised to include a demonstration of printing using packaging the textured material, an exciting and immediate process that doesn’t require a press!

In the late afternoon, if everyone is agreed Charles, would like to have a little show and appraisal of the work done.

A full demonstration will be given at every stage and all materials, including tools, will be provided.

A few words from Charles himself:

I was born in Kirkwall, Orkney in 1956 and studied at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen and at the Royal College of Art, London, specialising there in Illustration. Since my graduation in 1983 I have worked part-time teaching at numerous art schools in and out of London. My principal interest is in landscape and in particular those places and spaces that nature has reclaimed. This is an ongoing theme… I make regular trips to Southern Ireland in search of subject material, plotting my route from ruin to ruin… Those once great mansions that now stand in splendid decay, ivy clad and ravaged by a near century of weathering. Industrial wastelands, spoil heaps and edge of town brownfield sites also attract by their transience, their hoardings, pylons, stagnant pools and rutted tracks. I do seem to avoid the living shiny bright spaces…

I have also made several visits to the slate quarry workings around Snowdonia and tin mine workings along the north coast of Cornwall. These are workings on the grand scale…

Date: Weekend 25/26 January
Times: 10am to 4pm
Cost: £150 / Members £140