Over the weekend Andrew will introduce you to the creative possibilities of his non-toxic etching methods and guide you through two very different processes, including coffee and molasses lift on aluminium and faux mezzotint on copper.

The coffee lift is a process that allows artists to work on their plates with the same techniques as if using an Indian ink i.e. paint with brush, nib, splatter marks with toothbrush. The molasses allows artists to transfer textures from other surfaces such as bark and or use it directly onto their plate like a thicker painting technique.

The faux mezzotint is an alternative to the traditional mezzotint with the same deep depths of tone manipulated by scraping away from black. The advantage of this method is that you can easily prepare a plate in an hour without needing to spend many rocking the plate using the traditional method or buy expensive pre-prepared plates.

Date: Weekend 15/16 November
Times: 10am to 4pm
Cost: £220 / Members £210

As a professional artist and printmaker for the last 36 years, Andrew Baldwin’s practice has fallen into two main directions: as a practising artist and as a researcher and teacher of safer printmaking. Throughout his prominent career, he has contributed to notable exhibitions at the Mall Galleries, London and St. David’s Hall, Cardiff.

Andrew received the Most Exceptional Artist Award by the Federation of British Artists 2006 and in 2007, the Welsh Artist of the Year Award in Printmaking. He has also exhibited internationally with solo exhibitions in Australia, USA, Germany and the UK.

Over the last decade, Andrew has developed and produced an innovative safer etching ground, BIG, as part of a drive to reduce some of the more hazardous processes in etching. To accompany the ground he has also developed many safer ways to make an etching to produce a wide range of effects.

His research into non-toxic printmaking has generated invitations to teach printmaking all over the world, including the international printmaking conference ‘Impact’ on three occasions, many studios in USA, Canada, Italy and the UK and in 2017, Andrew was instrumental in setting up the etching facility at Ochre Print Studio.

Andrew teaches from his studio, Trefeglwys Printmakers in Mid-Wales, and continues to teach printmaking at Aberystwyth University, School of Art.

More information here