printmaking – Deborah Santoro

Akua Intaglio Ink

October 2, 2014October 2, 2014 artem6

Giddy with joy, a shipment from Dick Blick arrived carrying a new set of Akua Intaglio inks, a Berol Prismacolor set of 36 colored pencils, some Canson Johannot paper and, somewhat more randomly, cerulean blue watercolor ink (Holbein) and white gouache paint.

Because those are just staples, n’est-ce pas?

I’m participating in a 30 day challenge that my friend Ellen Olson Brown has been kind and ambitious enough to host. So this print is day one- a print a day. My gelatin plate is old and grungy- I’ve been using it all Summer and it even has bits of fern stuck in it from trying to add plant matter to a card for a friend the other day. The purple ink behaved in a surprising manner with the stencils, as if the water in the plate resisted the ink a bit. This did not happen with the scarlet red, which I attempted to damp down with some yellow ochre.

I’ll be making a new plate shortly but as I’m helping install a multi-media exhibit tomorrow (Mutherer by Denise Dumas), I won’t get to it until Friday. If I can squeeze it in on Thursday I could at least print on Friday with the new and larger and hopefully cleaner plate, we’ll see.

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New Print and 1/2 Year Goals

June 11, 2013June 11, 2013 artem6

Here’s another version of the deep backbend known as kapotasana, or pigeon pose. I’ve used a broken speedball plate to create some of the details in the floor and wall, which was a satisfying way to use a broken plate.

You can see the gravestone details here. I’m still working on drawing the hand in this position. I’m planning to do a lot more of these in the coming year, so I’ll keep working on those hands. I have 2 big goals for the next six months:

1. Get a new studio or update my existing studio (which depends on several other decisions falling into place, including whether or not we move). This includes finding a gently used etching press.

2. Start an artist’s group for artists who are working on exhibiting and/or selling their work. A safe haven where we can support each other and brainstorm ideas, share skills and so forth. So if I’m good at writing artist statements, maybe another artist is good at creating websites and we can share skills, presenting what we know to the group. It will start with reading Jackie Battenfield’s book “The Artist’s Guide.” I got this idea from Merill Comeau and her professional artist’s working group. They recently presented at the Concord Art Association and you bet I was there taking notes!

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Teapots and Hands

February 9, 2013 artem6

This is Ursula, in Ustrasana, the camel pose.

I’m taking some sessions with printmaker Pam Lawson. It is a joy to have access to a press and the wisdom of an experienced printmaker to go along with it. That night I told my husband the bad news, I’m going to need a press. He says fine, stop fooling around and let’s fix up our house and sell it, and then I can have a press and maybe a space of my own to work. The problem with that is that I’m up against time constraints. When I start fixing up the interior of our house, that’s going to eat up my studio time, at least for a while.

Same pose, Peg Mulqueen this time.

There is so much potential here, I want to work with multiple plates, layering the figures in their yoga poses against Islamic tile patterns. Meanwhile, Ellen Olson-Brown reminded me to get back to daily drawing, and I’ve been doing more or less that for a few weeks now. Here are a few sketches.

After a few sketches the teapot wanted more attention, so I’ve been working on this one for several days:

The handle is a bugger, let me tell you. What’s nagging me about the prints above top is the hands, I’m not drawing them terribly well and they need to be good, so once the teapot is done I’ll practice drawing the yoga poses for a bit, and try to get those hand positions down. The two teapots here are a good illustration of a frustrating drawing phenomenon. Quick sketches often have a life to them, a vibrancy that is hard to maintain in a longer more detailed drawing. You can kill the darn thing so easily, and it becomes lifeless and dull.