Studio Visit

Yukon School of Visual Arts Instructor Veronica Verkley
Instructor Veronica Verkley

The School of Visual Art in Dawson (SOVA) is a new accredited art school with a terrific foundation year curriculum.

Instructor Veronica Verkley (photo on the left) – a great artist in her own right – brought some of her students over to my printmaking studio the other day for some show and tell. It’s always great to reveal some of the mysteries about the process and it never fails to engage the students. I think they are all chomping at the bit to get back to class and begin the printmaking segment of their studies.

Here I am inking up an engraved copper plate to illustrate how intaglio printmaking works using the press, etc. (photos courtesy Veronica)

Guess the main thing is to get people to know the difference between relief printmaking and intaglio.

And then throwing in wood engraving as a term makes things worse because it’s a relief method with an intaglio title.

In the photo below I’m hunched over a piece of copper. Someone asked about the tools and methods for making a copper engraving. So I showed how the engraver’s pillow is used to pivot the work and

move it into the graver while the right hand maintains the correct angle of attack and pressure. Great to have a captive audience watching your every move. We did lots of fun stuff, I pulled some lino-cut and wood block prints to illustrate inking methods and hand burnishing. Of course I got to pontificate on all sorts of things. It’s dangerous for people to be trapped in

my space for any length of time. Doesn’t take long for me to exploit their entrapment and start peppering everyone with my unsolicited opinions!

So great if you could take a minute and leave your thoughts on this.