Art Appreciation – January/February 2024

For our first meeting of 2024, Molly gave a presentation on the sometimes confusing world of printmaking techniques.  Some of the most famous works of art over the centuries have been prints of one sort or another.  In previous meetings, we have looked at many of these, used terms such as lithography, etching and engraving, but have not always understood exactly what the technique entailed.  Molly, although modestly stressing that she was not a print maker herself, did share her considerable knowledge of the many techniques that artists have used over the centuries.

We were guided through a long list of techniques.  These included woodcuts, linocut, etching, aquatint, mezzotint, drypoint, engraving, lithography, screen printing, monotype and collography.  To illustrate her talk, she showed us some prints made by noted artists across the centuries, but we also had the opportunity to handle and closely examine prints and printing blocks which she had made herself.

The images shown below are:

• Man on horse – woodcut.
• Bird/flowers – woodblock.
• Raven – drypoint.

While some of the techniques enable anyone to produce a pleasing image, most of these techniques require enormous skill and hard work.  The level of detail in some of the images was quite remarkable and Molly’s explanation of how they were made added enormously to our appreciation of them.

At our next meeting, Michael Heyden will be giving a presentation on the Renaissance painter, Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Lynne Vick, Convenor