Rob Wooley Day in the Printshop

Rob Wooley was our visiting artist in the print shop yesterday and he stayed busy from early morning until late in the evening. He discussed the directions of his recent work, and the explorations with a variety of materials, including exotic papers that he chine colles onto one-of-a-kind prints. His two demonstrations were very informative. It was great having him back in the shop.

We all gathered around to look at the portfolio of prints that Rob brought with him. The layering of paper that he's utilizing with his work creates some really beautiful images, subtle veils of color and texture like the print at the top adds an almost spiritualness to the images. There are no longer hands or figures or portraits in his images, or at least not that are immediately readable. But instead dense textures, passages of light, and movement of amorphic shapes. Pretty amazing things happening in his work in what seems like a relatively short time.

Here Rob demonstrates the application of a tusche wash on a zinc plate, pushing it around while it's fluidity allows. After it dried, he etched it in nitric acid. The particles of the tusche produced a rich and velvety aquatint.

We had some refreshments before Rob began his presentations. Miranda was all about it!