Workshop 2016

Lymphatic pathways. Vegetable stories through intaglio technique 2016
by Veronica Azzinari
13-15 maggio 2016
Castle of Montefiore Conca
Vegetable stories through intaglio technique
This is a 3 day workshop on the traces of the diverse flora in the territory of the Conca Valley, with a careful look on textures that each plant brings on himself.
In helping us will be the soft-ground intaglio technique, to capture every detail of the intrinsic and mysterious maps, rich of the history that each plants describes and revealing what was hidden before.
Like explorers arrived on unknown lands we will follow the lymph pathways mesmerized by the different spaces. Colours and sensations will be used to create a new story.
During the workshop each participant will make two aluminium plates 20×20 cm. – one soft-ground and one dry-point –, to be printed on paper: the aim of their own research through the vegetable kingdom.
N.B. Following the Opificio della Rosa working philosophy in this course will be used non-toxic intaglio techniques, respecting the environment and the people who work there. Attendees will be taught to use the non toxic soft-ground technique (with copper sulphate).
Day 1:
– Guided walk to the knowledge of plants: their characteristics and their habitat. Each participant will collect the plants from which will be most affected.
– Reflections on the walk and on the suggestions received during the observation of plants; development of a theme and of a graphic idea.
– Preparation of the plates (sanding, polishing, degreasing).
Day 2:
– Impression of the collected plants on the first plate (soft-ground) that will be used to make the background for the final work.
– Etching of the plate with non-toxic acid.
– Print of the first plate (the plants) keeping a particular attention of the marks and the textures, even the most hidden, they can suggest you.
Day 3:
– Making a drawing on the synopia of the first print.
The image will be a further development of the image achieved through the plants; a story described on the traces of the chosen plants.
– Transferring of the drawing on the aluminium plate and engraving the drypoint.
– Printing with a registration technique the two plates on paper.
Veronica Azzinari was born in Milan in 1986 and graduated in 2006 in the Animation Film at ISA, Scuola del libro of Urbino.
In 2011 she began a personal research through the technique of intaglio.
Since 2010 she exhibited in various cities in Italy, publishes for magazines such as “Lo Straniero”, “La Lettura” and ” I Quaderni del Teatro di Roma” and works as an illustrator with some groups of the Italian independent music scene.
He leads the laboratory of intaglio at “Corte della Miniera” in Urbino.
www.veronicaazzinari.com

Mind the owl!: Letterpress workshop 2016
Veronica Bassini
20-22 maggio 2016
Castle of Montefiore Conca
“La Civetta”, (=the owl) in Italy is the newspapers’ headline board that stand in front of a newspapers’ kiosk to catch the attention of people, to arouse curiosity and push them to buy: “MAN ON THE MOON!”, “SCANDAL AT COURT!”.. But it is also the name of big panels that shop keepers stick outside their shop to catch the attention of clients “TOMATOES AND ONIONS” or “FRESH WATERMELON”.
Until recently, boards were printed by local printmakers who used their big wood type sets to compose boards of impact, to attract customers!
Opificio della Rosa has got a wide collection of big wood-type sets that students will use to print their “Civetta”.
Day 1 – Typography lesson. Materials, wood-type and print. First print proofs. We will look togehter to the collection of wood-type available in the studio.
Day 2- Posters printing. Each student must print minimum 1 poster invented and composed by himself matching creativity, impact and readability.
Veronica Bassini is a printer. She studied printing at Scuola delle Arti Applicate del Castello Sforzesco (Milano) and worked with the master printer Moreno Chiodini at 74/B print studio. After some projects on etching, relief printing and letterpress with the artist Arianna Vairo (AttilaMarcel collective), in 2012 she opened a print studio in Bologna called Anonima Impressori.
www.anonimaimpressori.it

Linocut & Letterpress Movie Poster Workshop 2016
by Nick Morley & Veronica Bassini
16-21 July 2016
Castle of Montefiore Conca
Print posters for your favourite movies using linocut and letterpress. Under the expert guidance of Nick Morley and Veronica Bassini you will learn how to design, carve and print an image with linocut and add text using letterpress. You will explore different approaches to making posters for film, taking inspiration from designers like Saul Bass (USA), Eduardo Munoz Bachs (Cuba) and Peter Strausfeld (UK).

During the workshop you will learn how to carve a linocut using a range of tools to create different marks, how to mix and layer colours and how to register multiple blocks. You will also learn basic typesetting using Opificio della Rosa’s wonderful collection of antique wood and metal type. At the end of the workshop you will go home with a number of experimental prints as well as a small edition of your chosen design
Nick Morley is an artist and illustrator who specialises in linocut. He has more than fifteen years of printmaking experience and has taught workshops at several venues including the V&A and Cenral Saint Martins. He has illustrated book covers for Penguin, Faber & Faber and Random House and he also makes his own books. Nick is the founder of Hello Print Studio in Margate.
www.linocutboy.com
www.helloprintstudio.com
Veronica Bassini is a printer. She studied printing at Scuola delle Arti Applicate del Castello Sforzesco (Milano) and worked with the master printer Moreno Chiodini at 74/B print studio. After some projects on etching, relief printing and letterpress with the artist Arianna Vairo (AttilaMarcel collective), in 2012 she opened a print studio in Bologna called Anonima Impressori.
www.anonimaimpressori.it

Lithography on synthetic support and drypoint on plexiglass 2016
by Gianna & Maria Pina Bentivenga
22-24 July 2016
Castle of Montefiore Conca
The workshop aimed at the study of the press through the combination of lithography and drypoint on plexiglass. It is aimed at both those who have no experience in the field of engraving, both engravers experts.
Lithography on the polyester support is a process that leaves much room for the use of design and photography. This procedure using the basic principle of lithography: water and grease repel, have new media, a matrix of polyester on which to draw with different materials from ballpoint pens to other fats, the transfer of black and white prints.
The use of a second matrix with signs produced with the dry point on Plexiglas, allows to experience interesting effects.
Gianna Bentivenga, she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. Since 1997 he began to devote himself to engraving. In 2006 he obtained a study to Kunsthaus Tacheles in Berlin where he will remain for a few months and will allow her to get in touch with many artists from around the world for a meaningful comparison in the field of art. In 2013 constitutes the cultural association INSIGNA where periodically organizes workshops aimed at disseminating the graphic art in all its aspects and also to the artist’s book typography. She has participated in several national and international events artisctiche.
She currently lives and works in Rome.
www.giannabentivenga.com
www.atelierinsigna.com

Maria Pina Bentivenga è nata a Stigliano (Matera) nel 1973, si trasferisce nel 1991 a Roma per frequentare l’Accademia di Belle Arti, dove si diploma nel 1995 sotto la guida di Duilio Rossoni con cui collaborerà negli anni successivi.
L’amore per il segno grafico, che nella sua ricerca trova forma nel puro disegno e nell’incisione calcografica, la porta a lavorare con determinazione fin dai tempi degli studi in accademia.
Le sue incisioni e i libri d’artista sono esposti in Italia e all’estero e fanno parte di collezioni tra cui l’Albertina di Vienna e l’Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica di Roma.
È socio fondatore dell’Associazione InSigna di Roma, che si occupa della divulgazione e realizzazione di Libri d’Artista e Grafica d’Arte e fa parte del direttivo dell’Associazione Incisori Contemporanei.
Maria Pina Bentivenga è un’artista che ha fatto della grafica d’arte e del disegno il suo luogo privilegiato d’indagine, affiancato, in specifici periodi del suo percorso, dalla pittura.
Vive e lavora a Roma dove dal 2000 insegna Tecniche grafiche Speciali e Grafica d’Arte presso la RUFA (Rome University of Fine Arts) e dal 2010 insegna Tecniche dell’Incisione presso la Scuola d’Arti Ornamentali del Comune di Roma San Giacomo.
Tiene workshop specialistici d’incisione, sul letterpress e sul Libro d’artista.
www.mariapinabentivenga.com
www.atelierinsigna.com

Xilo-reportage. Telling the memory 2016
by Umberto Giovannini
28 July – 10 August 2016
Castle of Montefiore Conca
Experimental illustration workshop with photography and woodcut
As an ideal storyteller’s poster each participant will realise illustrations in woodcut
technique, to create the iconography of a personal trip into memory.
Each participant will work on a story from life experience, personal or perceived, and will bring a little text about it.
The story can be of any kind, from a simple tale about making the coffee in the morning, to an event of epic proportions: be free, the path has many possibilities.
The stories will be divided into scenes according to the technique of illustration and theatre plays, experiencing new fields and new possibilities.
The aim is to move the emotions of a private experience in to a “universal” one.
During the workshop, each participant will be given the skill to realise colour woodcuts, from drawing to print, to be used as a poster telling the story or become the pages of an illustrated book.
We will experiment and play a lot with images and, almost daily, there are plans to go on excursions to take pictures that will be used for the works: from the castle of Montefiore to the harbour in Cattolica at sunrise, from a village festival to the countryside market. Anything along a creative path that goes from photo-reportage to woodcut.

Umberto Giovannini is a multidisciplinary artist with a specific interest in printmaking. He has a passion for woodcut, for which he has developed some personal intaglio and printing techniques. Founder member of VACA, he is the director of the Opificio della Rosa a low environmental impact graphic centre. His practice is complemented with teaching on BA courses in Graphic Design and Printmaking since 1991. At the moment is Associated Lecturer in Graphic and Communication Design at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London and Visiting Professor at Rome Academy of Fine Arts.
www.umbertogiovannini.it

Burin on copper 2: advanced level
tutor: Jürgen Czaschka
25-30 August 2015
Castle of Montefiore Conca
This course, only for those who have practice in copper engraving techniques, is a unique chance to draw on the wealth of artistic experience that Czaschka has fine-tuned in more than thirty years of studying and experimenting with burin technique, of which he possesses unparalleled knowledge, from the classic to contemporary developments. A preliminary phase deals with preparation of the plate and methods of sharpening the tools. The central part of the course involves experimentation with different techniques of burin engraving on copper: morphology of the sign; the relationship between heavy and light signs; the rhythmicity of the hatching and the intersecting undulations of 16th century anatomy engravings; the synthetic linear sign. The course concludes with the final phase of inking, cleaning and printing the matrix.

Born in Vienna, Jürgen Czaschka is unanimously acknowledged as one of the most extraordinary living burin artists. He got his artistic training in Berlin at the end of the 70’s and has created works of extraordinary technical expertise and overwhelming expressive force that make him an undisputed master of this art.