Viva Brighton Issue #52 June 2017

WE TRY
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Woodcut printmaking
Think ink
I’m spending the day at Charleston,
on a woodcut-printmaking course
led by Brighton-based artist Helen
Brown. It’s a lovely place to be, and
a lovely day to be here; it’s chilly
outside but the sun is shining and
nine of us are huddled inside the
little studio, mugs of tea in hand,
watching Helen demonstrate the
printing process. We’re going to
be carving our own woodblocks inspired
by details of the house, so we
each take a clipboard, a pencil and
several sheets of sketching paper,
and head down the little lane to the
farmhouse for a tour.
We’re shown around by curator
Darren Clarke, who points out interesting
details and tells us stories
about the house and its residents,
while we sketch anything that
interests us. I love pattern, so I’m
drawn to the beautiful geometric
designs hand-painted by Vanessa
Bell onto the walls, woodwork and
pieces of furniture. My favourite is
the pastel, centrifugal painting of
the dining-room table, so I focus
on this one in particular. After the
tour, we’re left to wander around the garden,
sketching some more, until we’re ready to go
back into the studio.
Once we’re back inside, Helen hands out carving
tools in various shapes and styles, and encourages
us to practise the woodcutting technique before
we sketch out the design for our first woodblock.
It’s a worthwhile task - once I’ve tried out some of
the finer details I had planned for my woodblock, I
realise I need to come up with something simpler.
We’re only working on practice blocks to begin
with, but Helen suggests inking up
and making a print early on, so that
we can see how the different marks
will come out on the paper.
One of my favourite things about
the workshop, as the afternoon goes
on, is that there’s no being precious
over your work. Helen encourages
us to keep printing and experimenting
- once we’ve made a print, we
lay it out to dry on the large table
next door, and then we ink up and
print again. She teaches us different
techniques, like Chine-collé, where
the image is printed onto coloured
paper or tissue before being bonded
onto the paper, so that an extra
layer of colour can be introduced.
The only limitation is time; we’re
just here for a few hours, so we
won’t have time to wash and dry out
our woodblocks when we change
between ink colours. Instead we
have to be clever about the order
in which we print, starting with the
lightest colour and working toward
the darkest.
Each time I lay one of my prints on
the drying table, I get to see what
everyone else has been working on. It’s amazing to
see how many different prints can come out of one
woodblock design, by using different coloured inks
and papers, and layering up in different combinations.
By the end of the day I’ve carved out three
different woodblocks and have around 20 different
prints to bring home. What a lovely way to spend
a day.
Rebecca Cunningham
Charleston’s programme of creative workshops run
throughout the year, visit charleston.org.uk
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