All About Degas!
(November Program Review)
Review by Ellen Cholski, published by TPS, December 2023. p. 2.
Christy Olsen was the guest speaker for our November meeting. She is a noted Tucson pastelist who is our vice president, a teacher at the Art Verve Academy, and an engineer. She has a B.A. degree in Art History and Anthropology as well as a B.S. in Computer Science.
All about Degas was the title of her interactive presentation. Edgar Degas was a French impressionist famous for his pastel and oil paintings, especially of dancers. He was also an avid user of monoprints in his paintings. While showing examples of his work, Christy shared that these monoprints helped him be painterly and loose.
Monoprints or monotypes create an image that can only be printed once with sometimes one additional ghost image. Christy demonstrated how to make a monoprint. She uses Akua ink because it dries quickly and prefers Strathmore printmaking paper. First, she placed ink on a glass pane and then rolled the ink smooth with a brayer. Then she drew in the ink with her finger covered with a baby wipe and mentioned how a variety of devices could be used to make a design. Once she had her desired design, she placed paper over it and pressed the paper with a clean brayer to make the monoprint. This is printing without a press.
Christy enjoys responsive drawing on paper that already has a design. Sometimes instead of a monoprint, she will use an inked brayer to make the marks for her background. Her advice was not to be meticulous and always experiment to make new discoveries. At the end of her presentation, we had the opportunity to either make a monoprint or paint on an already prepared monoprint. Thank you, Christy.
