Tetrapak!

I recently ran what turned out to be brilliant one-day workshop at a local venue. The Rickyard Gallery is a relatively new arts centre to our area, and I was delighted that they agreed to host my major retrospective exhibition ’10’ in November last year.

Instead of the usual flat board, this workshop used Tetrapaks – milk or juice cartons to you and me – which I had partly prepared by cutting open and flattening them out, as printing plates. The big difference here is that, unlike those more traditional substrates, Tetrapaks retain all those lovely crease and fold lines, which hold ink and print well. This is interesting, because, alongside any other of the countless other marks which can be added to the soft, receptive surface, they provide the printmaker with a built-in structure – one that can be used as a basis for either abstract or figurative imagery.

Anyway, the magical thing about the day was the way that the attendees got stuck in, regardless of experience. The plates looked amazing, full of interesting marks and contrasts, which was a promising sign for the prints to follow. They didn’t disappoint! The imagery was full of energy and movement, many with an intriguing mix of the abstract and figurative. It was a great day!