The PJP printmaking studio has started the year with a particularly athletic burst with Mark Schaller working on twelve new etching plates, and as many wood blocks, almost simultaneously. Mark, as you will remember, was one of the co-founders of ROAR, along with David Larwill (whom we are also currently printing) and is known for his exuberant figurative metaphors. His last studio residency resulted in the magnificent multi-plate Tempest, which featured on the front cover of Imprint in Spring 2004. The subject matter of these new plates range from Australian bird-life, nudes and butterflies to imaginary robo-men. This new body of work will be released at our Armadale Gallery in April as the centre pieces of a long planned survey of Mark’s graphic works.
On the personnel side one of our intaglio printers, Trent Walter, has left us for hotter and more exotic pastures and accepted an offer from Northern Editions at the Charles Darwin University, Darwin, as Workshop Manager. Trent has long been an aficionado of Aboriginal prints and this appointment will bring him in first-hand contact with some masters of the genre. Trent was a valued member of our team and we wish him well.
After some searching during the Xmas recess we were successful in finding a replacement for Trent, Joel Wolter. Joel comes to us with an enviable reputation and depth of experience as an editioning intaglio printer. He holds a BFA from the Victorian College of the Arts, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Education from Melbourne University, and a Diploma in Art from the Gordon Institute, Geelong. His experience as an editioning intaglio printer includes a lengthy period with Littlewood Press, Southbank, where he editioned prints for John Olsen, Robert Jacks, David Boyd and Paddy Fordum, amongst others.
