Participate in Print Workshop Central and Increase Your Visibility, Your Contacts and Your Business

Ten years of online fine-art-print advocacy have taught us that a single Internet  presence is not enough. The more–and more qualified–places you appear on the World Wide Web, the better for your print studio’s business. So start incrementing your presence now by joining Print Workshop Central. It has never been so easy.

The Standard participation in Print Workshop Central includes the following information on your studio:

• The studio’s name and address
• Linked website URL
• Email address
• Phone and fax numbers
• A brief one-paragraph description of the studio
• Unlimited text to tell your studio’s story
• Your studio’s logo
• Website URL and mail address, both linked so that clients just have to click on them to establish contact
• Up to 25 images to illustrate your presentation
• Your video
• An annual update of your studio’s information
• See a typical Standard participation here.

The Cost

World Printmakers provides all of these valuable services for just a 275-euro annual subscription.  Looking forward to seeing all of you soon on Print Workshop Central!  Just drop us an email and attach the the information you want featured on Print Workshop Central. We’ll get back to you immediately.

The Print Workshop Central work plan calls for an interview with a representative–usually but not necessarily the studio director–with every studio we put on the PWC site. We knew that this would mean extra work both for us and for the participants, but we thought the interviews might provide a means of seeing printers and print workshops from an inside angle. In the beginning we had no idea how rich and varied these interviews would turn out to be, but we have been delighted to discover a wealth of curious anecdotes, true confessions and delightful surprises from professional printmakers all the way from the tundra of Newfoundland on the North Atlantic Coast of Canada to the semi-tropical balm of New Zealand’s North Island.

We were impressed by the creativity of our master printers (not just for printing, but for life itself), their dedication and their sincerity, all seasoned with generous doses of humor. We’ve selected a few excerpts to give you an idea:

Mark Attwood’s Artists’ Press

Mark Attwood grew up with printing in South Africa. His father had a small commercial print shop where Mark helped out as a young man. When he decided to open his own fine-art printshop he was at a loss for training. He wound up in New Mexico.

There was nowhere in South Africa where one could learn lithography. I wasn’t interested in going to art school and doing fine-art printmaking. I wanted to specialise in lithography for artists, and Tamarind Institute was the only place I could find to do that sort of thing. I learned an enormous amount while I was there and a lot of the practises in my studio now (originality, ethics, conservation etc.) are taken closely from the Tamarind way of doing things.

Mark has an interesting explanation for the success which The Artists’ Press has had in its 17 years of existence:

Q: I love the story you tell of a well-known artist (Norman Catherine) putting up the financing necessary to buy “the paper, the ink and the sandwiches…” for you to make your first print professionally. That was in 1991. Since then The Artists’ Press has had a steady upwards trajectory in terms of artists, projects, additional media, a new purpose-built studio, distinguished collaborators, editions in galleries and museums around the world. To what do you attribute all this success. (Don’t be too modest. Your colleagues around the world are vitally interested in these details.)

A: I think a lack of personal options has lot to do with this. Heck, I can’t do anything else except print for artists and I have to make it work! (The only other skill I have is organic vegetable gardening, and I hardly produce more than one family can eat with that.) I think I have been really fortunate in the studio with getting the breaks I have had, and amazing support from artists. It also has to do with timing. In the 17 years since I started the studio, I have really seen a big shift in how collectors see a print. People who know, do take a print seriously as a significant part of an artists output these days. It really wasn’t like that in South Africa when I started the studio, and some knowledgeable people said I was wasting my time, and there was no chance of making a living from it. But I stuck to it (that “no other options” thing!) and it worked.

If we had a far-fetched projects contest, The Artists’ Press would definitely be in the running:

Q: Tell us a little bit about the Kuru Art Project. I know it was a long time ago (1992) but I confess I’m fascinated by that photograph of you trailering a litho press out into middle of the Kalahari Desert.

A: I was intrigued with the possibility of working with the San or Bushman artists on stone. I had all these romantic ideas about them painting on stone again for the first time in hundreds of years, so took my stones and press up to their studio. As it turned out the artists were just as happy to work on grained aluminium plates, and didn’t seem at all impressed with the concept of working on stone. They nevertheless did some beautiful prints on both stone and plate.

See full interview here.

Audrey Feltham’s Atelier West

Audrey Feltham is PWC’s northernmost printmaker thus far. Her Atelier West is located in Deer Lake, Newfoundland, a tiny town on the west coast of the island. We asked Audrey, who travels a lot to impart her workshops in schools and cultural centers, how she dealt with the great distances in this sparsely populated corner of Canada. Her answer comes with a fascinating history lesson:

I am a bit like the proverbial turtle, who carries his home on his back (or workshop, if you like). It is a 7-8 hour drive to St. John’s from Deer Lake. We do have a city on the west coast of the island, Corner Brook, which is only 1/2 hour from Deer Lake. But it is relatively small with little to offer in the way of good shopping. It does however have a good art supply store associated with the university there and I get a lot of my art supplies there, or on-line.

One gets used to the isolation. You have to remember that Newfoundland was essentially settled despite the resistance of the mother country(ies) Britain and France. Neither colonial power wanted the island settled, they just wanted to supply migrant workers for the summer fishery and then to benefit from the rewards of the cod supply. Settlement came about despite the fact that it was illegal to settle. Therefore if you settled on this Rock, you came knowing that you were isolated. My husband’s family settled on a little rock out in the middle of Bonavista Bay, called Deer Island. At the time of re-settlement, under the Smallwood government, in the late 1950’s, there were probably no more than 15 families living on that island. They had a one-room school, no doctor, no clinic, and postal service that was sporadic at best. Supplies were ordered and received by costal boat when the weather was good. For many people, they would consider this a very hard existence, but it had some advantages… you weren’t bothered too much by government intruders, and you had no crime. The latter is still a great advantage to living in Newfoundland. Our crime rate is exceedingly low…

See full interview here.

Maureen Booth’s Pomegranate Editions

One of the purposes of these interviews is for print people to share professional secrets. Here’s Maureen Booth’s (Pomegranate Editions, Granada, Spain) formula for success:

I try to give my clients professionalism. What does that mean? It means working cleanly and conscientiously, as if I were printing my own stuff. It means meeting deadlines rigorously, and not overcharging. People tend to lose sight of the historical significance of serial art: it made original art affordable to the people!

I like to think that a good printer can bring a little something extra to a plate. I love to surprise my clients with brilliant prints. Also, the paper is a factor. I only use handmade paper for my own work, and I always recommend it to my customers. They love the results. I don’t understand why more workshops don’t use great papers. Fair enough, they’re more expensive, but you recover the extra money you spend on them because you can sell the prints for a better price. Great paper is a very simple and straightforward way to distinguish your own work and that of your clients.

See full interview here.

Seacourt Print Workshop

We asked Robert Peters, director of the Seacourt Print Workshop in Bangor, Northern Ireland, his take on “the digital issue.”

Q: This is a question we ask everybody, as it’s an issue we’re concerned about: What is your take on the people who sell “giclee” inkjet copies as “art prints?” What do you think can be done to counter this massive phenomenon, if anything?

A: This is one of the many challenges faced by artists working in printmaking. The word “print” itself confuses the public as they associate it with reproductions of impressionist paintings they can purchase at the local DIY store for a few quid. The giclee prints add insult to injury by inferring that they are limited editions. The printmaking fraternity need to come to a consensus on what is an original limited-edition print and stake out an international standard that all organisations can sign up to and uphold. Educating the public is an ongoing task – we accompany all our exhibitions with an explanation of what an original print is and what the technical terms mean. It’s an uphill struggle.

Q: What’s your opinion of original digital work as fine-art prints? What about work which incorporates digital elements but is output through an etching or relief press. For example, prints done by artists like April Vollmer in the U.S. or Serkan Adin in Turkey.

A: Any act of placing ink onto a surface through whatever process may be considered a print, if that is the only form it exists in, i.e. not purely a reproduction of an image created in another medium. We hope to hold a symposium on this issue in 2009, I’ll keep you posted.
See full interview here.

Mark Graver’s Wharepuke Print Studio

What happens when an English printmaker falls for a New Zealand girl? They open up a print studio in Wharepuke, a semi-tropical haven on the northern tip of New Zealand’s North Island. The English printmaker in question is Mark Graver. What’s it like print in paradise, Mark?

Q: Are there specific problems/limitations inherent in being located a long way from the European and American printmaking mainstream? Do you work with anyone from Australia. That would seem to make sense, no?

A: The main use of the studio is as a place for me to make my own work so I can offer courses and workshops when I want to. We are therefore not reliant on others using the space. Since opening publicly in March 20008 I have been contacted by printmakers from around the world. Australia is an important market too and we’ve been contacted by Australian printmakers wanting to come for courses. We have on site, self contained cottage accommodation here too so can offer holiday packages.

See the full interview here.