Printmaking classes offer success to budding artists
When The Firefly Artists hosted a workshop last summer by Big Ink, a New Hampshire-based printmaking organization, the group made sure to open wide the front door of its gallery in a historic building on Northport’s Main Street.
“It’s really exciting to watch,” Beth Atkinson, managing partner of the Long Island collaborative artists’ space, said of the crowds that gathered to witness 8-by-4-foot woodblock prints being pulled from Big Ink’s custom-built mobile press. “It takes four people to lift the paper so it doesn’t smear. There were lots of oohs and aahs. People were clapping and cheering.”
The Big Ink workshop in August at The Firefly Artists Gallery in Northport drew printmaking enthusiasts and curious passersby. Credit: Beth Atkinson
The event was organized to promote awareness and appreciation of printmaking — the act of transferring an original image from a block, plate or screen to a sheet of paper — and its practitioners. Comprising woodcuts, etchings, lithographs, Solarplates, silk-screens, monoprints and more, the art form has increasingly become essential to an artist’s oeuvre, embraced for its experimental nature and ability to produce extraordinary effects.
Museums and galleries have been augmenting the number of exhibitions dedicated to the medium and opportunities to display them alongside their more prominent cousins, painting and sculpture. Art venues across Long Island have been reflecting the trend with recent shows, including a survey of Jasper Johns’ prints at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, Andy Warhol’s portfolios at the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor, and Solarplate impressions at the Southampton Arts Center.
"People were clapping and cheering,” said Beth Atkinson of the Firefly's summer workshop. Credit: Beth Atkinson
“The more exposure people have to prints and printmaking processes, the more respect they have for the work,” said Atkinson, a retired Hicksville art teacher. When asked by Huntington’s Heckscher Museum of Art to speak about her piece in its current Long Island Biennial, the artist noted how she brought a wood block with her and carved it on-site. “People were able to see how different tools make different marks,” she explained.
Printmaking mecca
While artists and curators have been bringing prints to the forefront of the local arts community, Long Island itself has figured prominently in their history. One of the country’s most respected and inventive printmaking workshops — Universal Limited Art Editions, or ULAE, as it’s known — was founded in a two-story Victorian cottage on a West Islip cul-de-sac not far from the Robert Moses Causeway. Tatyana Grosman, a Russian émigré, who lived there with her artist husband, Maurice, became a major figure of the American studio print revolution that began in the mid-1950s. With two Bavarian lithographic stones conveniently found in her front yard and a neighbor who was willing to sell them a press, Grosman turned to printmaking as a means of supporting the couple after Maurice had a debilitating heart attack.
What began as an intimate lithography shop producing early classic Pop images by the likes of Robert Rauschenberg, Jim Dine and Helen Frankenthaler remains a producer of exceptional and innovative impressions by countless art stars, including Kiki Smith, Ed Ruscha and Ellen Gallagher.
Dan Welden in the studio at his home in Sag Harbor in 2016. Credit: Gordon M. Grant
Sag Harbor’s Dan Welden, who worked as a printer at ULAE in the early 1970s, has tirelessly promoted what is often described as the magic of printmaking throughout his long career, believing that one doesn’t need to be a big-name artist to fall under its spell. First dubbed a master printer — a skilled technician who collaborates with artists to achieve their visions — by the Abstract Expressionist Willem de Kooning, Welden is the director of Hampton Editions Ltd., operating a press out of his basement home studio.
In addition to being an artist approaching his 100th solo exhibition, Welden is renowned for having invented and popularized the Solarplate printmaking process. The technique eliminates hazardous acids and solvents in the making of intaglio and relief impressions. Instead, artists draw or paint on a steel plate with a polymer coating that is processed using sunlight and tap water.
Since 1970, Welden has demonstrated his environmentally friendly method to artists in more than 50 countries. He also conducts printmaking workshops at national and local art venues and in middle and high schools across the region. “A huge reason why the prints community has grown here is because of Dan,” said Atkinson. “He is one of the most supportive artists I know.”
Expanding access
Artists Eric Fischl and April Gornik. Credit: Gordon M. Grant
Eric Fischl, a Neo-Expressionist painter celebrated for his images of middle-class suburbia, experienced Welden’s expertise and largesse firsthand, making his first Solarplate with the master printer in the early 1990s. Welden was also the force behind Printaganza, an exhibition and benefit auction of monotype prints created by more than 50 of the East End’s best-known artists for The Church, a historic structure in Sag Harbor recently purchased and refurbished by Fischl and his wife, painter April Gornik.
“Besides its huge success, Printaganza was when we were introduced to the talents of Samuel Havens and Sue Bachemin. We are fortunate to have them continue Dan’s legacy,” Fischl noted about the Welden disciples who now lead The Church’s monthly open studio sessions. “The popularity of their workshop shows the desire for creative engagement in our community.”
Dory Rhodes of Forest Hills and Eric Montgomery of Sag Harbor show off their prints, made at a Great Neck Community Education class and at The Church in Sag Harbor, respectively.
The sessions’ eight spots sell out quickly. “We have a lot of repeat participants. People sit and keep refreshing the webpage to sign up. And we have a waitlist,” Havens said.
The class roster ranges from career artists to people who have never stepped inside an art studio. Largely because of time constrictions, Havens and Bachemin focus their instruction on monotypes — one-off impressions created by manipulating ink or paint on a Plexiglas plate and running it through a press onto paper. “There is a big learning curve with printmaking. There are so many processes and techniques. Monotype is not overly complicated, and participants can leave with something they are proud of,” said Havens.
The operation of the American French Tool etching press (donated by Sean and Tamara McCarthy, who inherited it from Sean’s artist father) is handled by the two facilitators. “It’s a magical feeling, seeing the print being pulled from the press,” said Bachemin of the often-unexpected effects of the machine’s bone-crushing weight. “It is joyful to see.”
Sue Bachemin, co-facilitor at the monotype workshop at The Church in Sag Harbor, works on a student's print . Credit: Randee Daddona
The element of change inherent to printmaking is what often attracts people to the medium. “Some artists who come from different disciplines, like painting and sculpture, want to shake themselves up and not keep falling back on what they know,” Bachemin noted.
Mae Mougin, a ceramist from Southampton and a repeat participant in sessions, makes prints using the stamps she has employed in the creation of her distinctive dinnerware. “I was curious about printmaking and wanted to try something else,” she said. “Creating prints took the embossing I was doing in my clay work to a whole other level. I’m addicted.”
Walter Bobbie of Water Mill uses herbs from his garden to make a monotype print at The Church in Sag Harbor. Credit: Randee Daddona
Walter Bobbie, a workshop attendee who lives in Water Mill, also turned to a different medium — in this case, gardening — for inspiration. The arresting tsunami of green-on-green specks defining one of his recent monotypes was created with an amalgam of oregano, rosemary and thyme he cut from his backyard.
Prizing experimentation
“With printmaking, there are all kinds of ways to grow an image,” noted Stephanie Navon Jacobson, who leads workshops and classes at Great Neck Community Education, the Art League of Long Island in Dix Hills, and the Art Guild, Elderfields Preserve, in Port Washington. “You can do wonderful things with color, shape and texture. You don’t have to have drawing skills. You can use Q-Tips, toothbrushes or serrated knives, for example, to formulate marks.”
Educator Stephanie Navon Jacobson of North Bellmore, left, with Beth Goodrich of Bayside at a Great Neck Community Education class. Credit: Debbie Egan-Chin
The energy level in the studio, according to Jacobson, who is also on the faculty of St. John’s University, is always high. “Everyone is doing something different. People are thinking, ‘When I get done with this, I want to do that.’ When a person comes into my class, they often don’t leave,” she said, noting how one student remained enrolled for 21 years, creating prints until she reached her mid-90s.
Along with promoting experimentation, prints can offer a visual record of an artist’s decision-making process through various states — the individual impressions made after each deliberate change to a matrix. It can also be a way for the artist to hold on to their art. “When I was in college, I would fall in love with what I made,” Jacobson said. “With editioned prints, I was able to give an image away or sell it and still have one for me.”
“Printmakers are very sharing people,” Welden said. The master printer’s own calendar is jam-packed with engagements to share his knowledge and passion for the collaborative artistic endeavor. “They come by the busloads,” he said of the stream of young students who visit his studio. “They can see the importance of using their hands, of getting ink under their fingernails, something that doesn’t happen using a computer mouse.”
Mae Mougin of Southampton with her monotype prints at a workshop at The Church in Sag Harbor. Credit: Randee Daddona
Hampton Bays printmaker Andrea Cote also invites people into her basement workspace to witness and partake in the discipline’s magic. Her “quirky and mystical old partner” — a 19th-century cast-iron star wheel etching press passed along to her from a line of female artists — has the power to transform not only a sheet of paper, Cote explained, but an image’s creator as well. “It may seem intimidating, but it is actually very accessible. There is a way into it for everyone,” she said.
In addition to demonstrating printmaking’s surprising user-friendliness in her home studio, Cote leads workshops at Gallery North in Setauket and the Parrish, teaching techniques like monotype, linocut and collagraph (in which textured materials are glued to a matrix) throughout the year on the museum’s newly acquired press. According to the Parrish’s education program manager, Casey Meyer, the purchase grew out of the museum’s Jasper Johns print exhibition. “The hope is to start building an interest in these classes while making them more accessible to students who are just beginning,” she said.
Larissa Grass, the director of education and an instructor at Gallery North, has worked hard to build the art center’s program, which boasts three presses and a slate of workshops, open studios and instructors. Her interest in printmaking began in the late 1990s, when she was introduced to the medium by Dan Welden, who had been teaching at her St. James high school. “I fell in love with the ritual of printmaking,” she said, “documenting the mixing of colors, keeping the place clean, handling the paper, having everything set, like in a Japanese tea ceremony.”
Even at the height of the pandemic, Grass continued to share her enthusiasm for the art form, growing a following by posting a lesson a day on YouTube, where some of the videos have gotten more than 5,000 views.“I found my community,” she said, “and then I realized it’s bigger than I thought it was going to be.”
Paige Patterson of Bridgehampton at the press with Susan Bachemin during a monotype workshop at The Church in Sag Harbor. Credit: Randee Daddona
Find a printmaking class
Here are some printmaking workshops and classes on Long Island:
Parrish Art Museum: “Introduction to Printmaking: Monotypes,” Jan. 13, 20, 27 (single class or all three), 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m., 279 Montauk Hwy., Water Mill, 631-283-2118, parrishart.org
The Church: “Monotype Printmaking Workshop for High School Students,” Jan. 15, 2-4 p.m.; “Open Studio Monotype Printmaking,” Jan. 26 and Feb. 22, 2-6 p.m., 48 Madison St., Sag Harbor, 631-919-5342, thechurchsagharbor.org
Great Neck Community Education: “Printmaking Sampler,” Fridays, Jan. 20-March10 (except Feb. 24), 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.; “Printmaking Is Not Just for Printmakers,” Fridays, Jan. 20-March 10 (except Feb. 24), 12:45-3:45 p.m.; “Solarplate Printmaking: An Alternative to Etching,” Tuesdays, Jan. 24-March 7 (except Feb. 21), 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m., 30 Cumberland Ave., Great Neck, 516-441-4949, www.greatneck.k12.ny.us
The Art League of Long Island: “Printmaking Open Studio,” Thursdays, 6-9 p.m., 107 E. Deer Park Rd., Dix Hills, 631-462-5400, artleagueli.org
Gallery North: “Silkscreen Printing,” Jan. 21, 28, 2:30-5:30 p.m.; “Open Session; Printing & Studio Art,” Jan. 19, 6:30-9:30 p.m.; “Intro to Mono Printing,” Feb. 11, 2:30-5:30 p.m.; “Introduction to Intaglio Printmaking on Plexi,” March 18, 25, 3-6 p.m., 90 North Country Rd., Setauket, 631-751-2676, gallerynorth.org
The Firefly Artists Gallery: 90 Main St., Northport, 631-651-5545, thefireflyartists.com (check for workshops)
Hampton Editions: 1649 Millstone Rd., Sag Harbor, 631-725-3990, hamptoneditionsltd.com (check for workshops)
The Art Guild: Elderfields Preserve, 200 Port Washington Blvd., Manhasset, 516-304-5797, theartguild.org (check for workshops)
Starwheel Press and Projects: Hampton Bays, starwheelpress.wordpress.com (check for workshops)
