Gyotaku & Nature Printing in May

I was delighted to have the opportunity to teach a variety of gyotaku and nature printing techniques to the Canadian artist, Cathy Driedzic.

More of Cathy's work can be seen at www.cathydriedzic.ca

Cathy created over 50 prints starting with botanicals; a variety of plants collected from the garden of my studio. She was able to experiment with a variety of techniques including the 'taku-ga' plant printing technique and a variety of materials. The next session introduced direct and idirect gyotaku for a selection of shells, sea urchins, starfish, seaweed and mermaid's purses which were collected when beach combing in the Ria Formosa.

Cathy also produced some excellent prints of cuttlefish, the incredibly delicate cuttlefish bone, sea bass, xaputa and carapau in monochrome and full colour.
Examples of her work can be seen below.

Gyotaku & Nature Printing in May

Printing  the cuttlefish in the Salvador Dali manner.

Cathy inking the cuttlefish with a soft sponge roller.

Cathy's indirect gyotaku of a sea urchin on Kozo paper with Caligo Water Washable Relief ink, sea urchin on the right.

Cathy's direct gyotaku of an oyster shell on Wenzhou paper with Caligo Water Washable Relief ink, oyster shell on the left.