Praeterita

I recently finished teaching a five week course in acrylic resist etching. I and my six students explored how to make hard ground, soft ground, and dry point intaglio prints using non-toxic materials, such as floor polish for a hard ground, relief ink for soft ground, soy sauce for degreasing, soda ash for a stripping solution. Some of the students were experienced printmakers, some were first time etchers, and some were first time for both. Uniformly, they each produced some spectacular prints. They were honestly better than my first efforts using these new materials, partly as a result of my long trial-and-error research into this, but mainly because of their own willingness and talent. Here are a few images from the class. First, a hard ground with chine colle: A couple of hard ground images mixed with drypoint: A softground etching: A hard ground: Finally, a hand-coloured hard ground etching:

Part 37 of an interview series in which artists reply to the same six questions. Today's respondent is artist Kate Ingold , whose work encompasses media as diverse as poetry, photography, and object-making. She is currently in the process of relocating from Chicago to Los Angeles; however, people in the midwest can see her work soon at Perry Farm , in Bourbonnais, IL, in collaboration with artist Joanne Aono .  “The relatively brief preponderance of moments,” antique mourning quilt embroidered with real platinum thread, wool batting, 69” x 69” approx., 2015 PH : What medium/media do you chiefly use, and why? KI : I consider myself a multi-disciplinary artist, but I suppose my primary medium is photography because I often start each project by making photographs. I print my photographs one time only and then treat them as substrates for drawings by tearing, scratching, sewing, and in other ways manipulating their surfaces. I also work in textiles (old and new), video, coll...

I've known the artist John Tomlinson for a few years. And by known, I mean "known", in that we so far have only become acquainted with each other via social media (though there was one near miss in New York City a few years ago). Such is the way of things, one feels after a while that one knows someone in the old fashioned way, too, after sharing and reading about each other's lives and works over a period of time. He is a phenomenal draughtsman, as this image of a graphite drawing shows: You can see a lot more of his work over at his website . I've also just become aware that he has begun a blog, and a handsome affair it is too. As a former professor of art at Parsons, and the director of the New York Studio Residency Program, what he has to say about art is going to be worth listening to. So in order to share the blog love, here is a link to John Tomlinson's nothing but art blog .