Interview: Susan Hurrell Fieldes

For those of you that like monoprinting,

here is a NZ Printmaker that you will enjoy:

Who are you? 

Susan Hurrell Fieldes 

I am a printmaker, living in Auckland, new Zealand. 

I was introduced to printmaking 30 years ago. 

I went back to school as an adult student 

to take university entrance and bursary art,

printmaking was part of the curriculum. 

I’m trained as a music teacher,

though these days I spend most of my time working on my art.

Susan Hurrell Fieldes
Artist in residence, Carmel College, 2011

What is your favourite thing about printmaking? 

From the very start, printmaking felt just right. 

It was like coming home.

Now, it’s who I am, I can’t not do it!

To go into my studio each day,

to smell the smell of the work, 

it’s where I live.

My determination is to be the best printmaker I can possibly be. 

It’s my passion!

  

Susan Hurrell Fieldes, #30 from the series "Layers of Her", 2011
Monoprint



Describe your most memorable printmaking moment

This year I was fortunate to have two solo shows:

one in Wellington, the other in New York. 

They reinforced for me that I was an artist.

Susan Hurrell Fieldes, #38(NY#1) from the series "Layers of Her", 2011
Monoprint

What/who influences your work? 

Initially it was the prints of Jim Dine that inspired me. 

I loved the way he turned “the right way to printmake” on it’s head. 

He used whatever was at hand to make marks: power tools, hammers. 

Right now, most of my work is monotype prints. 

This world was unlocked for me by Ron Pokrasso.

I feel this was when I came fully alive as a printmaker.

I am also inspired by the work of Antoni Tapies. 

Each year I travel to New York to work with two master printmakers, 

Kathy Caraccio and Dan Welden.

I’m exposed to a huge variety of print work 

and this can’t help influence and stimulate me. 

Susan Hurrell Fieldes, #16 from the series "Layers of Her", 2011
Monoprint

Can you offer a small piece of printmaking advice? 

Perhaps the main thing I’ve learned in New York is 

that there is no one way to make a print,

every artist needs to find their own path 

and speak their own voice.

Susan Hurrell Fieldes, 2011
Monotype print

"The body of work around this comes from 

the photographs I took in my last trip to NY in April.

The street art fascinates me; the graffiti, the etchings in the footpath, on the roads,

the crumbling pedestrian markings, the smells, the noise...mostly, the energy."

You can see more of Susan's work on her website:

 www.redjeeppress.com 

Woodblock Workshop, 13-15 Jan, Auckland

Artsight is running a workshop in Auckland on 13–15 January 2012.

Looking at themes of the carnival and celebration 

Brazilian born Printmaker Annie Sandano combines pattern and animal motifs 

with exquisite embossing to create visually rich artworks. 

In this three day workshop with Annie you will explore 

woodblock techniques, printing and embossing. 

You will develop a series of three works based on a theme of your choice, 

fitted into their own hand printed and hand made box. 

Suitable for both beginning printmakers and those with some experience. 

Cost $410 (or $370 early bird fee if paid by Dec 20)

Annie Smits Sandano, Kapua Cloud Fantails, 2010
Woodblock

Annie Smits Sandano was born in Brazil and grew up in NZ. 

She graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts, 

has studied at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design 

and spent a semester attending Fine Arts College SACI in Florence. 

Annie has participated in numerous group exhibitions throughout NZ, Australia 

and select cities in the USA, and has had several successful solo shows at Seed Gallery. 

Annie is represented by galleries all over NZ, 

and her pieces feature in collections all around the world. 

An important part of Annie’s practice is the donation of artwork 

to numerous organisations to raise funds for various causes.

Annie Smits Sandano, Kokowhai Rauponga with Tuis, 2007
Woodblock

Click here for the make enquiries or to book:

http://www.artsight.co.nz/artist-workshops-auckland.html 

International Open Print Show, 10 Dec-7 Jan, Kerikeri

Art at Wharepuke's 2nd International Open Print Show

opens this Saturday 10 December in Kerikeri

and will conclude on 7 January 2012.

Beatrice Carlson, La Boutique, 2011
Solarplate etching

Melissa Smith, Tilt, 2011

Eva Toker Jawerbaum, Corners, 2011

The exhibition includes work by 23 artists from 14 different countries 

in a variety of printmaking techniques. 

A shortlist of prizewinners has been drawn up and their work will be  

judged by an international panel of expert printmakers and gallery directors. 

The first prize will be a solo show at Art at Wharepuke and gallery representation in NZ. 

A full colour catalogue of the exhibition will also be published.

Blair Craig, Small Black Cookie, 2011

Susie Turner, Falling Leaves III, 2011

Lyndon Keene, Coromandel Harbour II, 2011

Eugen Buchner, Fibula, 2011

For those of you who can't make it to Kerikeri during that time,

all works from the show can be seen on Art at Wharepuke's Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_at_wharepuke/sets/72157628311970899/

Christmas Show, 12-23 Dec, Christchurch

PaperGraphica's Christmas Show 

will be opening on Monday 12 December at 5.30pm,

located at 192 Bealey Avenue, Christchurch.

 This exhibition features a range of artists including works by

Rudolf Boelee, Nigel Buxton, Barry Cleavin, Ruth Cleland,

Denise Copland, Fatu Feu'u, Kristin Hollis, Ralph Hotere,

Mary McFarlane, Fran Maguire, Isaac Neame, James Robinson,

Helm Ruifrok, Margaret Silverwood, Martin Whitworth and Eion Stevens.

Exhibition concludes on Friday 23 December.

The gallery will be reopening on 18 January 2012.

Screenprint Workshop, 9-13 Jan, Wellington

Inverlochy Art School in Wellington are also offering a 5-day screenprinting workshop

as part of their Summer School programme from 9-13 January 2012

It will be taught by Bruce Mahalski

Screen-printing is a fascinating, flexible and versatile medium, 

where you can print virtually anything onto almost anything. 

If you have always wanted to print your own t-shirt, 

clothing, poster or paper, then this is the class for you! 

For beginners as well as more experienced people, 

this course will teach a wide range of screen-printing techniques. 

Learn how to bring your design ideas to life. 

The course will cover the basics of screen-printing 

on paper and printing posters as well as fabric printing. 

Fee: $380 

A screen or screens will have to be purchased for $38 each, 

all other basic materials supplied. 

Click here to see their website for more details on enrolling in this course.

Colour Intaglio Workshop, 9-13 Jan, Wellington

Inverlochy Art School in Wellington are offering a workshop

called Just Add Colour - Colour (Intaglio) Printmaking

as part of their Summer School programme

 from 9-13 January 2012

Christine Porter (AU), Moon Dreamer, 2010
Multi-plate colour etching, 6x7cm, edition of 90

This workshop concentrates on the printing part of (intaglio) print-making. 

Five days of exploring the many ways of adding colour 

to an already etched plate or on plates created in class. 

There’ll be no actual etching with acid this week: 

the cheap easy drypoint alternatives are a way to learn transferable skills 

and as legitimate artwork in themselves. 

Working small at first, we will create a library of marks and techniques – 

each student will compile and bind their many inking, wiping 

and printing experiments into a self-printed, studio resource artists’ book. 

Most will edition at least one print. 

Topics include comparing various inks, selective wiping, blending and mixing colours, 

spot colours, multi-plate printing, ink alternatives, the safe studio and much more. 

Both beginning and experienced printmakers are welcomed and catered for.

Fee: $360

Tutor: Christine Porter

Australian professional artist, teacher and editioning printer 

Christine Porter has achieved global success with her artwork. 

Her etchings have been exhibited in galleries across Australia and internationally. 

Her Bachelor of Visual Arts (majoring in Printmaking) from Southern Cross University 

has heightened her understanding of contemporary art practice 

without it changing her knowledge of traditional methods and image making processes. 

She loves just about everything to do with printmaking 

and enjoys the challenge of teaching in a multi-level classroom.

Click here to see their website for more details on enrolling in this course.

Interview: Steve Lovett

Who are you? 

Stephen Lovett (also called Steve)

I have been teaching at Manukau School of Visual Arts 

since the school opened its doors in 1995. 

My BFA and MFA (from Elam) were done 10 years apart, 

which seemed enough time to process the learning and respond, 

grow get over the experience in my art practice. 

In New Zealand print is a strange entity, 

weighed down by an encumbered history and distorted 

by an approach that conceives of the medium as a means to produce multiples. 

Printmaking and/or print-media are ably suited to do task. 

But this task is often what print is seen as being for, 

as opposed to being a contentious medium that implicates us all in the processes 

by which we are and our actions in the world are represented to ourselves and to others. 

I have collected printed images and ephemera all my life. 

Printed images and texts are incredibly powerful and utterly ubiquitous. 

They inform and reinforce our views of the worlds we inhabit and move through. 

Printed images have the power to confirm and contest who we think we are, 

or think we may be and how we are in the world. 

That’s how I became interested in making printed images. 

Steve Lovett, I Worked, 2011
Screenprint

I am presenting the first of two new bodies of work 

at the Papakura Art Gallery from 26 November - 24 December. 

The second body of work will be show in early 2012 

at the Dunedin School of Art at Otago Polytechnic. 

These new works look the performance of print 

and are focused on questions of the value and location of art labour. 

After that I am setting aside time to develop a writing project 

focused on the contemporary print practice in Aotearoa New Zealand 

Steve Lovett, Along The Edge, 2011

What is your favourite thing(s) about printmaking? 

I’ve said this in various conference papers in recent years, 

printed work carries with it the potential to be engaged with

 the sharpest and most decisively critical edge 

of cultural, political and technological debate and action 

because that is the defining character of the medium from its birth in the west. 

Constantly in flux print is driven by technologies 

that ‘fall out’ of industry to be inflected and infect by artists. 

Recognising this history and context for contemporary practice, 

the real foundation for print what we potentially engaging with 

is one that always a contentious practice. 

Steve Lovett, Print Object, 2011
Screenprint

Describe your most memorable printmaking moment. 

There have been many, since I’ve been making images for ages. 

But most recently I’ve been printing some monochromatic hexachrome separations 

with metallic and transparent grey inks on both gessoed board and cotton rag papers. 

Nice technical accomplishment. 

IMPACT & in Melbourne this year was excellent. 

The keynote paper by Paul Coldwell that examined print 

in the context of folio to installation was fantastic. 

Steve Lovett, Performed Obseved, 2011
Screenprint

What or who influences your work and/or subject matter? 

There are lots. 

In the film The September Issue the Vogue creative director Grace Coddington 

notes the importance of keeping all receiving channels open to new information. 

For me what this sets up is a relationship between the isolation and solitude of making 

and need for a constant engagement with the world. 

Steve Lovett, Float, 2010
Screenprint

Can you offer some print-related advice to share with other NZ Printmakers? 

Um, look at lots of different stuff. Reads lots. Listen to new stuff. 

Work as much as you can in ways that you don’t know how to control properly. 

If I can see that something has been made already in a certain way, 

then I’ll make something else. Let stuff fail. 

Throw stuff away, give it away, destroy it, create room for new stuff. 

Keep moving. Keep making. Get excited and make stuff.

Steve Lovett, Work History, 2011
Screenprint

For more information about Steve, or view his online gallery, see:

http://stevelovett.co.nz