Seminole County Printmakers worked with The Tenth St. John Festival of the Arts to bring to the City of Sanford its First Annual Steamroller Printmaking Event. “…What is printmaking?” ….and.. “why use a steamroller?” you may ask.
Today most people do not understand the art of Printmaking. It is a very old art form that starting in China over 1500 years ago and arrived in Europe with Marco Polo in the 13th century. Printmaking is an art form that allows an artist to create multiple handmade copies of one image. Today we take quick reproduction for granted but once it was the only way an image could be reproduced. Some printmaking methods are woodcuts, wood engraving, etching, metal engraving, and relief prints. Relief printing is made by carving away areas that aren’t to be printed, the high points hold the ink.
The Seminole County Printmakers provide Seminole County and
Central Florida access to Fine Art printmaking. The Group informs students,
artists, faculty, and the public by sharing our knowledge, understanding, and
support for all forms of artmaking.
A Steamroller event is a
wonderful public art celebration. Steamroller events have been very popular
with art groups over the past 15 years as fundraisers and educational events.
Traditionally, printmaking is
done in an artist’s studio with the aid of a printing press. Artists carve on
wood or artist linoleum and create large-format plates. A typical relief plate
is usually small depending upon the printing press size. A plate is run through
a printing press, it runs under a roller and the ink is transferred from the
plate to the paper. With a Steamroller event, the artists are only limited by
the size of the steamroller. The steamroller becomes the printing press and artists
often create huge prints some as large as 4 feet by 8 feet. Our event was smaller 2ft to 3ft max.
Steamroller Printmaking Events are wonderful public events. The Crowds loved the event and were eager audiences. Children and adults are intrigued by the process and the printed results.
Seminole County Printmakers hope this will become an Annual
Event and will enrich the Arts Community by making Sanford an artistic hub in
the region. Artists from all over Central Florida are recruited are
participants. The plates we used are 24” x 24” and 24” x 36”. We printed 4 prints per plate. Sales of the prints will benefit Seminole County Printmakers and St. Johns River Festival
of the Arts Children’s Programs. Please visit our Etsy Shop, Seminoleprintmakers
