2 workshops!

New BookBinding/making workshop !! | June 23-June 27, 2024

PRINTMAKING Workshop | June 28-July 5, 2024

After a hard day in the studio, enjoy Hugo's famous margaritas at Alma del Sol's B&B terrace surrounded by mountains, Spanish Colonial architecture, and music that funnels up from the cobble stone streets below. The enclosed yet open air printmaking studio is located at the Bed & Breakfast hotel on the top floor terrace. Participants can come and go at their leisure, sit and draw with an inspiring view or use one of the several printmaking presses while viewing the mountains in the distance. Lodging is in the center of town and walking distance to variety of traditional Mexican and International culinary delights, shops and tourist sights. You'll leave Guanajuato with an array of prints, memories, and lasting friendships from around the world. Printmaking is a labor intensive method of making artworks, often in multiples. The image is transferred from a matrix to a surface, traditionally paper. A matrix, sometimes called the plate, can be made of various materials that when manipulated, inked and pressed against paper results in the print. 

This is not for PSU students. If you are a student wishing to earn university credit please visit PSU Education Abroad or email aschroer@pdx.edu.

NOTE: Guanajuato is a very hilly town with cobblestone roads. Most of the downtown sidewalks are smooth and easy to get around, but with a combination of the elevation and hills it can be strenuous for some folks at times. Also, the hotel does not have an elevator so you would need to climb four short flights of stairs. If you’re older and like to walk you shouldn’t have a problem. The view is worth it!

NEW! Bookmaking & binding Workshop

June 23-June 27, 2024

Cost $650

This NEW three-day bookmaking workshop will focus on bookmaking and bookbinding. Participants will create a hardbound journal/sketchbook/artbook using the Coptic stitch method, an accordion-style book with blank pages or with their own artwork, and also make their own papers using printmaking techniques which can be used to cover your books or as pages inside your books. Instructor will demo and introduce terms and techniques as they pertain to bookmaking.

This workshop is perfect for those who want to have a creative summer but also want to explore beyond the studio. Make a unique journal and hit the beaches of southern Mexico, visit the galleries in Mexico City, or just kick up your heals in San Miguel de Allende and draw, write, create. (Option B: combine with the printmaking workshop and have a SUPER creative summer. )

Most supplies and tools such as signatures (book paper inserts), book boards, and some basic decorative papers will be included in the cost of the workshop. However, students are encouraged to bring some decorative papers of their choosing. You may also bring prints or artwork from home, or leave the pages blank for sketching or journalling.

Workshop is taught by Mandee Schroer.

Bookmaking ITINERARY

Traditional Mexican breakfast every day at Alma del Sol, and a beautiful lunch is provided on studio days (included in workshop fee). Please let us know if you have any dietary restrictions. Vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, diabetic? We can accommodate you! 

Day 1 / Arrive in Guanajuato, meet and greet, snacks and drinks on Alma del Sol Terrace.
Day 2 / Bookmaking in the studio, 10am-5pm
Day 3 / Bookmaking in the studio, 10am-5pm
Day 4 / Bookmaking in the studio, 10am-5pm
Day 5 / Trip ends

MANDEE SCHROER & HUGO ANAYA

Mandee has a BFA and MFA in Fine Arts and is a printmaker & painter who currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon. She teaches painting and drawing at Portland State & Clackamas Community College. Mandee has also led PSU students and private groups to Italy and Mexico since 2012.

Hugo, a Guanajuato native, is a printmaker, chef and owner/host of Alma del Sol & Hotel Color Bed & Breakfasts in Guanajuato. Hugo studied Fine Arts at Portland State University, and lived in Portland, Oregon for 18 years. 

The workshop is co-taught by Mandee & Hugo, and both will be present every day in the studio to assist with your projects.

Museums & galleries

Alhondiga de Granaditas, Diego Rivera Museum, San Gabriel de Barrerra, Pueblo de Guanajuato Museum, Regional Museum of Guanajuato, La Valenciana Church , Gene Byron Museum , Mummy Museum, Olga Costa Museum , Teatro Juarez, Contemporary Art Museum & others

Monoprint/Monotype 

*Various in depth monotype techniques will explored throughout the workshop.

Monotypes are a unique print made by pressing paper against a painted or inked surface.  A Monotype implies that the original impression cannot be reused,  “pulled” or printed twice. Both Monotype and Monoprint refer to the production of singular works. In contrast, the monotype allows only one pull of the original followed by a ghost print in some circumstances. The monotype, like painting, is very direct and allows great flexibility as the range of marks that can be obtained. Marks can made using brushes, rags, hands, and found objects. There are many ways to create the image on the printing surface, and the work can be produced quickly and spontaneously or slowly and in great detail, depending on how quickly the ink dries. Impressions can be reworked, corrected, and removed as is possible in painting.

RELIEF

A printmaking technique whereby the image is printed from the raised surface with the cutting away of the non-image areas. Traditionally, relief prints are created using a block of wood or linoleum. Using knives, gouges, or engraving tools. the image is developed with a variety of delicate and broad marks. Th areas that have been cut away and exist below the surface of the block will not print, as the ink remains on the raised surface. The unprinted areas )sometimes referred to as the negative space) are integral to the image and will stay the color of the paper used. The final image is printed in reverse, so the design will be a mirror image to the one created on the block.

Intaglio Etching & Drypoint 

A technique in which the image is incised into a metal surface, filled with ink and transferred to paper. The term “Intaglio”, meaning “to engrave” or “cut into,” refers to the process by which an image is created by gouging, biting, or incising lines into the surface of a metal plate. The print is produced by filling the recessed marked and lines in order to transfer the image to damp paper.  In the final piece, the image will print in reverse from the design on the plate and the ink will stand proud of the surface of the paper. Etching is an abrasive substance that bites or cleans away areas of a plate or block. In etching, usually ferric chloride or copper sulphate used to bite a line into a metal plate. Drypoint uses a hard needle to create a scratch across the plate surface. This action creates a burr and flanges of metal or plastic fold back from the edge of the scratch. It is these flecks of metal that retain the body of ink. The characteristic of a drypoint is softer, more furry line in comparison to the controlled clarity of an engraved or etched line. The drypoint is very fragile and generally does not sustain more than 20 good impressions.

Chine Collé

Traditionally, the printing of an image on a very light, delicate paper that is then adhered to a stronger, supporting paper. The application of color using colored paper rather than the use of ink on multiple plates.