Gelli Plate Printing with Paige Quinn-Vasic
Four Tuesdays, Sept 9-30, 10:30am-12:30pm
Cost: $150-$250 sliding scale* plus $20 materials fee paid to the instructor the first day of class
Gelli Printing is a one-off monoprinting technique that uses the petroleum surface of the plate to temporarily hold acrylic paint while its surface is manipulated with any combination of stamps, images, or tools. Your printing paper is then pressed onto the paint surface in order to capture the image, which is peeled off with the paper. In this four-week session with Paige Quinn-Vasic, you will explore infinite possibilities such as printing with nature, photo transfers, stencils and patterns, and painting layers backwards. Some of these techniques require some trial and error, but this kind of printmaking is accessible for all creatives, including beginners, because of its quick set up, clean up, low cost, and ease of material use. Students will walk away with stacks of colorful collage material, 20 hand printed cards with natural floral impressions and patterning, personalized photo transfer prints of a pet or loved one with a colorful background.
Students will be supplied with a 5x7 gelli plate, a variety of stencils and materials for creative printing impressions, as well as a variety of acrylic paint colors. If you want to bring specific colors and materials be sure they are acrylic paints and objects that are not sharp since the gelli plate is delicate.
In preparation for the class, collect high contrast pictures that look good in black and white. These need to be printed with a laser printer, not an inkjet printer. If you don't have access to a laser printer with toner (not many people do) you can email them to the instructor to be printed for class. You can also collect magazines with interesting high contrast imagery. Their compatibility with this technique will have to be tested.
To register, please email programs@nohoarts.org with your name, address, phone number, and which session you are registering for. Payment can be made via PayPal here, or by mailing a check made out to NCFA to PO Box 366, Northampton, MA 01061.
*Payments on the upper end of the sliding scale help support our continued commitment to accessibility, including sliding scale models and the NCFA Community Fund.
Paige Quinn-Vasic is a local working artist who is trained in many creative mediums such as painting, printmaking, ceramics, and more. She completed her bachelors in fine arts and art education at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which drove her to explore an interdisciplinary practice. Her medium of choice in the last few years has been collage with painted paper, but recently got back into oil painting. The feeling of manipulating color is meditative in a way that other processes feel more removed from the quality of direct play. Her practice tends to hop between mediums as she follows the whims of her creative inner child, exploring whimsy, peculiar curiosities, and microaggressions. Since moving to Northampton in 2023, she has earned a LCC grant for her community project, Noho Art Club, and dove into teaching workshops. You can see more of her work at www.paigesquinn.com or @paigesquinn and @nohoartclub on Instagram