Christmas Angel

There's just one angel decoration left so that must mean it's almost Christmas! Happy to have survived another year and to have made it through another very busy festive season. Looking forward to some time off to recover from everything and hopefully starting to feel creative again. Already planning what to screen print for the new year. Have a good holiday however you choose to spend it and best of luck for 2020!

Summer Screen Printing Workshops

I have a few screen printing workshops coming up so at the moment I'm preparing some new examples to help explain the technique. Today I decided to go back to basics and create a very simple design inspired by George Braque's 'Birds in Flight'. First I hand cut paper stencils of my design and then I used one stencil to screen print a blue background. While that was drying I washed my screen and set up to print my next layer of colour. I used my second stencil to add some pale blue birds on top of the blue background. I did this all in just a morning and that is the great thing about screen printing with paper stencils... it's so quick and accessible! It doesn't require any nasty chemicals and all the materials and equipment are affordable as well as readily available. I'll be teaching this technique on Saturday the 10th of August at the RBSA Gallery. I also have another workshop there on Wednesday the 23rd of October. More details about these and lots of other workshops can be found on the gallery's website http://www.rbsa.org.uk/

More Art in the Park!

Back in Birmingham after a busy weekend at Art in the Park Festival in Leamington Spa. I enjoyed exhibiting my screen prints in the beautiful setting of the Royal Pump Rooms alongside other artists and designer makers. Although we didn't get the same footfall as stall holders in the park I still met lots of friendly visitors... including someone who I was on art foundation with about 20 years ago! It was lovely to be with fellow exhibitors from Birmingham especially Gosia Weber. She very kindly took me and my work to Leamington every day which was a huge help and meant I could take some framed prints. I also displayed plenty of publicity materials for future events and the RBSA Gallery leaflets were particularly popular with visitors! Overall the experience was a positive one and I feel I made the most of it. I hope I have the opportunity to take part in future events in Leamington and Warwickshire.

Leamington Art in the Park Festival 2019

 

This weekend I'm taking part in Royal Leamington Spa's Art in the Park Festival. It's my first time exhibiting my screen prints at Art in the Park and also my first time exhibiting my work in Leamington. I've never been to the festival before so I've no idea what to expect... it's exciting and a little bit scary too! Luckily I've had a couple of quiet weeks to prepare and so I've been working on some new designs including this Green Man. I wanted to do something a little bit different and also challenge myself so it's been alot of hard work. Just creating the design took a while and once the artwork was finished I had to scan it and create the separate layers of colour. I spent a morning coating screens and exposing transparencies for each layer onto them followed by an afternoon screen printing bright coloured proofs. Then I spent a day screen printing a small edition of A3 four colour prints. There were supposed to be more but I'm out of practice at screen printing A3 so made some silly mistakes... like not clamping the screen in properly! At least the gradient turned out really well.

Art in the Park Festival takes place on the 3rd and 4th of August in the in the beautiful surroundings of Jephson Gardens in Leamington. There's lots more information including a brochure on the website https://www.artinpark.co.uk/

Leicester Print Fair 2019

I am looking forward to exhibiting my screen prints at Leicester Print Workshop in just a few weeks time! They are holding their first annual print fair and it will feature printmakers from Leicester aswell as further afield. I've visited the workshop a few times and it is a lovely light filled space. There is always something interesting to see so the print fair promises to be an exciting event! More information and a list of exhibitors can be found on the LPW website http://www.leicesterprintworkshop.com/events/leicester_print_fair/

Leicester Print Fair is on Saturday the 13th of July 2019 from 11am until 5pm at 

Leicester Print Workshop

50 St. George Street

Leicester

LE1 1QG

Last Week of My Screen Print Exhibition!

It's almost the last week of my exhibition in the Coach House Gallery at Winterbourne House and Garden. I've really enjoyed showing my screen prints in the gallery and it's been great to have some red dots next to my work! I'm lucky to live near such a beautiful place and to have had the opportunity to spend more time there. Exploring the gardens in sunshine and even in downpours has been lovely, there's so much to see and so much inspiration! 

My screen print exhibition is on until the 2nd of July 2019 in the Coach House Gallery at: 
Winterbourne House and Garden
University of Birmingham
58 Edgbaston Park Road
Birmingham
B15 2RT
https://www.winterbourne.org.uk/whats-on/karoline-rerrie-screen-print-exhibition/

Screen Print Workshop at Winterbourne House and Garden

 

At the moment I'm busy practising my stencil cutting and printing lots of examples for my screen printing workshop on Saturday June the 22nd at Winterbourne House and Garden in Birmingham. It's part of their Year of Print and there will be plenty of inspiration in the beautiful gardens. 

The technique I will be teaching is screen printing using hand cut paper stencils with drawing materials or paints. The advantage of this is that multiple colours can be printed using just one stencil! The prints have lots of texture and each one is slightly different as you can see from these examples. During the workshop participants will create their own designs and use scalpels to carefully hand cut paper stencils. They will work directly onto silk screens to add colour using different drawing materials or paints. Then they will use their stencils, silk screens and squeegees to screen print a small edition of varied prints on paper.

Information about this workshop and other Year of Print events at Winterbourne House and Garden can be found on their website.
https://www.winterbourne.org.uk/whats-on/screen-printing/

Screen Print Exhibition at Winterbourne House & Garden

Here's a little tour of the Coach House Gallery at Winterbourne House and Garden. It's a lovely space to show work and I managed to fill all five walls with a selection of folk trees and other folk art inspired screen prints. All the framed work on display is for sale and I also have unframed screen prints available to buy in the shop... but only until July the 2nd!

My screen print exhibition is on from the 24th of May until the 2nd of July 2019 in the Coach House Gallery at: 
Winterbourne House and Garden
University of Birmingham
58 Edgbaston Park Road
Birmingham
B15 2RT
https://www.winterbourne.org.uk/whats-on/karoline-rerrie-screen-print-exhibition/

Winterbourne House & Garden - Year of Print

Winterbourne House and Garden have made this their 'Year of Print' and I am very lucky to be one of the printmakers taking part. I'll have work for sale in the shop throughout the 'Year of Print' and at the moment I also have an exhibition of framed screen prints in the Coach House Gallery. These are just a few of the prints I have on display. I am showing a colourful collection of folk art inspired prints which have created over the last 8 years. My work has changed over time and it is interesting to see everything together at last!

My screen print exhibition is on from the 24th of May until the 2nd of July 2019 in the Coach House Gallery at: 
Winterbourne House and Garden
University of Birmingham
58 Edgbaston Park Road
Birmingham
B15 2RT
https://www.winterbourne.org.uk/whats-on/karoline-rerrie-screen-print-exhibition/

New Dove Screen Print

I've spent the last couple of days working on a new four colour screen print. The design has been on my screens for almost a year. I set my heart on having a dark background which was difficult to print and I also couldn't decide on the colours so it got left and forgotten about. But now I need some new work so this week I rethought the colours and made another attempt! I printed some proofs first but there was too much yellow so I decided to try some pale blue.

I did a little test print to check what the mustard yellow on top of pale blue would look like. It worked OK so I screen printed the pale blue and then added the yellow details.

Screen printing a navy blue gradient for the background was hard work and very messy, I won't be doing that again anytime soon! Finishing the print with gold leaves was easy by comparison and I now have a small edition of 20 prints on 285gsm ivory Fabriano Rosaspina printmaking paper. They'll be available at my next few events in Birmingham.

Spot the Difference!

Here is the proof for a new 'Tulips' screenprint next to the finished print. Printing some proofs first is time consuming but it really helps me work out the right colours & identify any problems with my artwork. When I printed these tulip proofs not only did I realise that the colours were too bright but also that I had printed the layers in the wrong order.

For the finished print I chose to screen print the background with a green gradient. Next I added some peach details to the flowers before printing the deep red. Lastly I screen printed the green leaves & finished a small edition of 25 Tulips on ivory coloured Fabriano Rosaspina printmaking paper.

Print Stuff in York

This week I've been frantically printing stuff for Print Stuff in York over the bank holiday weekend. Print Stuff is a celebration of independent print and artists' publishing which takes place at the De Grey Rooms opposite York Art Gallery. It's my first time exhibiting at the fair and also in York so I'm quite excited aswell as little bit nervous! But I'm looking forward to a weekend of print and spending a few days in Yorkshire visiting galleries and eating cream teas. https://www.print-stuff.co.uk/home

Coffee & Art

Each year I create a new coffee themed screen print usually inspired by vintage coffee pots & crockery. This time I wanted to try something different so I drew a design inspired by coffee growing. In my design coffee plants with red coffee beans & white flowers surround a hand holding some 'Magic Beans'. The hand motif is loosely based on religious folk charms that are used as votive offerings. So in my design the hand holding coffee beans is an offering for the gods to thank them for a good harvest.

I screen printed my design in four colours. First I printed the light green background followed by the red coffee beans & hand. When it came to printing the green leaves I had to remember to add a missing detail using a tiny piece of newsprint. You might be able to spot what is missing from the one of the leaves printed on the clear registration sheet.

After printing the green leaves I added dark brown coffee beans & finished a limited edition of just 15 'Magic Beans' screen prints. Number 1/15 was framed & exhibited at the London Coffee Festival in March. I am selling the other 14 screen prints & proceeds will go to Project Waterfall to help bring clean, safe drinking water, sanitation and education to coffee growing communities. http://www.projectwaterfall.org/