Announcement

The Atascadero Art Association will host a printmaking demonstration by artist Robert "Rosey" Rosenthal at it's meeting on Monday, November 14th. Rosey will provide 3" x 4" linoleum squares for us to carve and print.

Rosenthal, a graduate of Pratt Institute, is a career professional artist. He began as a Madison Avenue art director and altered his career to full-time printmaking after moving to California in 1973. He has been involved in the San Luis Obispo art community since moving here from Los Angeles in 1981.

Rosenthal was on the Board of Directors of the San Luis Obispo Art Center (now Museum), a founding member of the Central Coast Printmakers, the co-op gallery Art is Here! and the San Luis Artists' Gallery in the Creamery. He and his artist wife Barbara owned ART is for Everyone! Gallery in Baywood Park. Together they were Artists-in-Residence for the Fundación Rodriguez-Acosta in Granada, Spain and Rosey is still represented there and in Germany. Now they are members of Studios on the Park in Paso Robles.

Rosenthal teaches etching workshops at his Los Osos studio and has given demonstrations and lectures for Cal Poly, Cuesta College Community Programs, San Luis High School and many art associations in the county.

About his latest prints Rosenthal says, "Several years ago students in a class I taught created such powerful linoleum prints that I was impelled to explore this medium I hadn't touched since high school. The timing was perfect for me because I had just decided to concentrate on the figure, both nude and clothed. Cutting the linoleum is like tracing my finger along the model's body. A feeling intimate and exciting. The resulting strong graphic images satisfies my artistic goals and my desire to share my love of our ever expressive bodies."

Review

This month our demonstrator was Robert "Rosey" Rosenthal, a teacher of relief printmaking, an artist who has lectured regularly through out the county. Our meeting room was set up as a workshop. Rosey was teaching the art of block printing. At each place was a palm grip linoleum cutter, a 3 x 4 pad to carve and also design sheets if we should want them. Many of us created own designs. Under Rosey’s tutorage, we transferred a design onto the carving block. The block itself was made by Speedball. It was constructed of material that makes it faster, safer and easier to carve than the traditional wood or linoleum. Our gouging tool fit easily into the palm of our hand for safe carving and had a twist off cap for cutter storage inside the handle. The blades come in a variety of sizes. Once our pattern was on the block, we used the gouge to cut away the negative space leaving the uncut positive space to ink. Rosy helped us ink. He put water-soluble paint down on glass and we used a soft brayer, enabling us to put a smooth application of ink on our pad. We placed our paper on the pad and used spoons as a "baron" to smooth out the paint. Everyone seemed very pleased with the results, which you can see on our website.