I just got back from a lovely evening with an artist group that I had not met before! The Juan de Fuca Arts and Crafts Guild Painters meet once a month to paint together and try new techniques with visiting artists. They were a really fun bunch of people, and I really enjoyed the chance to share an evening of art-making with them.

I had met Lesley, who books their visiting artists, at the Monterey Centre artisan’s fair that I did back in November, and we had a lovely chat there. She got in touch with me and invited me to show the group a technique that I have written about before on this blog, Watercolour Monotypes; you can read about how to do them here and see a couple of my faves here. It was really nice to have a reason to do some of these unusual prints again, as I haven’t been doing a lot of them lately.

I took some pictures of the wonderful work people were doing, as well as my own setup — I wanted to show off what a great job everyone did!

My table set-up. I had two tables to spread out on, what luxury!

Some of my old prints flanked by the new ones I worked on tonight.

One of the interesting things about this technique is that you can end up with two works of art that are related but quite different.

These ladies were going about their painting with such verve! This was a skilled group of artists, a real treat to work with, as I usually teach beginner classes.

This is a great example of how the transfer and the plate can both make beautiful works of art on their own.

I loved the colour of this bear — the artist was using a really juicy, opaque pink and it transferred extremely well. I think this would make a great illustration for a children’s book.

Here’s another image that I think would make a great illustration: the little rabbit silhouetted in front of the warm, bright light of a sunrise.

The print at the bottom left shows beautifully some of the painterly effects of this technique. And the bamboo just knocked my sox off!

Many thanks to the painters for inviting me to be part of such a wonderful, friendly, creative evening — and thanks for the tea and cookies!