NA TIONAL PRIN TMAKING FES TI VAL S TROUD

IM P RE S S’0 9

CA TALOGUE

G P c

G L O U C E S T E R S H I R E P R I N T M A K I N G C O O P E R A T I V E

NATIONAL PRINT FESTIVAL STROUD

IM P RE S S’0 9

oreword by

Norman Akroyd

RA RE

Tricia Torrington

CHAIR GPC

Printmaking has always been changing - ever since Gutenberg, printmakershave been adapting and nding new methods or making plates and printingthem. Artists take hold o new ideas and push them in innovative directionsand that is why a estival like IMPRESS is so important because estivalslike this give artists the opportunity to meet, discuss, debate and showwhat can be done. Festivals give the public and artists the opportunityto learn and people learn with their eyes, they look at a print and ask‘how was this done?’. There are the standard ways o making prints andplates but there are also new ways - or example we have digital printingand combinations o this with standard techniques, and the ability to usecomputers to help make plates. There are all sorts o ways to bring in newpossibilities, sometimes it doesn’t work but sometimes real breakthroughsare made. Festivals give artists the chance to collaborate and to think aboutexperimenting. For the artist the picture they are making is the most importantthing but the technique as to how they made it is also ascinating.Non-printmakers oten don’t know what ne art printmaking is about, thereare even insecurities among collectors, it can be dicult just to understandwhat an original print is as opposed to a reproduction. Festivals giveeveryone a chance to look and learn, to discuss and debate. I have beeninvolved with many National and International print concentrated projectsand have ound they give us the chance to combine an interest in art withlearning something new about a locale and simply just to have un. Stroud isa remarkable area to explore and the Festival will give people – and me – achance to discover it.The aims o setting up the IMPRESS’09 National Printmaking Festival weresimple –to provide a dynamic orum to promote contemporary printmaking,in Gloucestershire and located in the Stroud Valleys in particular. Thisorum was to encourage, inorm and excite the public about what neart printmaking actually is, and to oer contemporary printmakers theopportunity to exhibit, learn, meet and discuss.It was agreed early on that IMPRESS’09 Festival was to be a dynamic andinclusive month-long event, showcasing some o the best in contemporaryBritish printmaking and eaturing invited artists o stature.Perhaps organising a Festival o this prominence and this breadth in arecession was ambitious but this catalogue and the series o exhibitions,talks, demonstrations and workshops that support the Festival show thatPrintmaking is very much alive and kicking. This catalogue celebratesprintmaking and print workshops rom England, Wales and Ireland, as wellas providing a platorm or some International artists. We hope this willprove a reerence tool or both printmakers and or all those interested inprint over the next ew years.