Upcoming Workshop on Traditional French Pochoir with Kitty Maryatt

In February, North Bennet Street School will be hosting the exhibit Drop Dead Gorgeous: Fine Bindings of La Prose du Transsibérien Re-creation. In conjunction with this exhibit, NEGBW is hosting a workshop with Kitty Maryatt on the technique of traditional French pochoir.

 

Kitty Maryatt of Two Hands Press has been researching the production of La Prose du Transsibérien since 2012. She studied pochoir with Atelier Coloris in Ploubazlenac, France. In 2018, she debuted a new edition of 150 copies, which faithfully incorporates techniques and methods used in the original.

What: Traditional French Pochoir Workshop
Where: North Bennet Street School, Boston, MA
When: February 29 – March 1
Register here

The word pochoir in French simply means stencil, which has been done by every culture since mankind blew iron oxide around their hands onto cave walls. As the French are known to do, they developed particularly sophisticated stencil techniques in the early twentieth century. This workshop will introduce the basics of printing multiples through such stencils. The steps involve the following: trace the imagery that you want to reproduce, develop a registration system, identify and separate the colors, cut aluminum plates by hand, mix gouache colors, prime the French pochoir brush and apply the liquid in a swirling fashion.

Demonstrations of tracing images and cutting the plates will be shown first. Participants will trace one color from the image and cut an aluminum plate. The instructor will bring a pre-designed image with plates already cut so that participants can immediately learn the brush techniques. The six colors will be applied as the group makes an edition of the image. Then we will look at the images brought in by participants and discover which images are appropriate to reproduce in this way, including printing a base image.

Next, participants will select or create an image to be reproduced and go through the steps to make an edition of that image. Since this is an introduction, the focus will be on problem-solving and experiencing the joy of vibrant and true color. Additional techniques used on La Prose du Transsibérien will be highlighted and demonstrated.

For more information click here: https://gbw.formstack.com/forms/negbw_introduction_to_traditional_french_pochoir