William Barnhart Workshop

Recently I was lucky enough to participate in one of a series of two-day workshops tutored by Arizona artist William Barnhart. The workshops were held at Studio Printmakers' studio where I am a member. This is a collective printmaking group based in Auckland, NZ. Visit their website to find out more here.

Bill is a painter, sculptor and printmaker. I first became aware of his printmaking when his work was selected as one of the winning artists for the 2015 Mini Print International of Cadaques. In this workshop he shared his techniques for drypoint, monoprint wiping and chine colle as used for his Mini Print works.

The morning of the first day was spent doing drawing exercises to free up our drawing lines. This began simply enough with drawing circles and ovals and moved on to continuous line drawings - a great way to draw. 

The session ended with us all drawing with lengths of dowel taped to our wrong/other arm with a pencil taped to the end of the dowel. Definitely frees you up! And great fun too!

Next we moved on to watching Bill demo the process from whoa to go. 

William Barnhart demonstrates his drypoint technique.

William Barnhart demonstrates his wiping techniques.

William Barnhart's completed exemplar
using drypoint and chine colle.

Then we got stuck in to create our own works.

William Barnhart workshop in progress at Studio Printmakers.

The drying rack soon filled up with our works.

Another exemplar by William Barnhart.

I was pleasantly surprised with what I produced. I had gone along with some images based around themes I am currently working with and an open mind as to how I might use them.

Bill's process gelled with me and I found that I was able to translate his instructions into my own way of working. I had no idea what I would create in this workshop so it was exciting to see what I came up with - very different from anything else I have done, yet still "me."

Drypoint, chine colle prints by Toni Hartill.

There was a huge variety of works produced in this workshop and in the following one the next weekend. Great to see everyone shining through in their own unique ways.

Wiliam Barnhart drypoint, chine colle workshop
at Studio Printmakers.

Since the workshop I had a couple of days in my studio playing with the process further to see if it was all a fluke. 

First I printed a variation on one of my plates created in the workshop.

Drypoint, chine colle print by Toni Hartill.

 I then created a series of mini prints from a new plate playing with colour, composition and wiping. I was also interested to see how well the plate would print multiple times. 

So far it was holding up just fine.

Mini drypoints by Toni Hartill.

Mini drypoint by Toni Hartill.

I really quite like the "comic book" quality of these prints. 

Something more for me to explore further.

A BIG thanks to Bill for his fun and inspirational teaching!