Phil Garrett

PHILL GARRETT & BILL JACKSON: H O R S E S

2009-10-30T13:34:00.008-04:00

Showing at the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County in Camden, S.C., until Nov. 20, 2009, is an exhibition of art depicting horses by if ART Gallery artists Phil Garrett, paintings and monotypes, and Bill Jackson, metal and bronze sculptures.

Below, see three short video clips of the opening reception on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009.

To see clips of Phil Garrett conducting a monotype printing demonstration as part of the exhibition, CLICK HERE.

Meet Phil Garrett & See His New Horse Paintings: July 14, 2009

2009-07-02T16:32:00.000-04:00

For a PREVIEW, click here.

if ART Gallery
1223 Lincoln St., Columbia, SC
presents

Meet Phil Garrett
&
See His New Horse Paintings

Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 6 – 9 p.m.

For more information, CLICK HERE

contact Wim Roefs at if ART:
(803) 238-2351 – wroefs@sc.rr.com

Works of Art: Phil Garrett

2009-07-01T16:46:00.003-04:00

No Title (Horse), 2001

Monotype

15 x 15 in.

$ 450

CLICK HERE FOR MORE WORKS BY GARRETT.

All works of art by Phil Garrett are available at if ART Gallery, 1223 Lincoln Street, Columbia, SC.

Contact Wim Roefs at if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com or (803) 255-0068/(803) 238-2351.

Phil GARRET Monotype Demonstration

2009-05-30T13:00:00.001-04:00

Watch the four clips below to see parts of Phil Garrett's monotype printmaking demonstration at the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County in Camden, S.C, Nov. 1, 2009. The demonstration was part of the activities surrounding the exhibition "Phil Garrett & Bill Jackson: Horses," an exhibition of paintings and monotypes by Garrett, and welded steel and bronze sculptures, by Jackson.

For clips of the exhibition installation and reception, CLICK HERE.

For more information about Phil Garrett's monotype and painting demonstrations, CLICK HERE.

Phil Garrett: Monotype Demonstration: January 25, 2009

2009-01-26T13:01:00.001-05:00

(AAB Photography)

Salon III: January 15- February 4, 2009

2009-01-07T17:28:00.002-05:00

For exhibition preview, click here.

For installation images, click here.

For printmaking demonstration schedule, click here.

Kitakata Runner I, 2001
Monotype/Chine Colle
10 x 8 in
$1,000

if ART Gallery

presents

SALON III: The Print Exhibition

January 15 – February 4, 2009

if ART Gallery

1223 Lincoln St., Columbia, S.C. 29205

Reception: Thursday, Jan. 15, 5 – 10 p.m.

Opening Hours:

Weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Saturday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

& by appointment

Printmaking Demonstrations:

Sunday, Jan. 18, 3 – 5 p.m., Marcelo Novo, Print Gocco

Sunday, Jan. 25, 3 – 5 p.m., Phil Garrett, Monotype

Saturday, Jan. 31, 3 – 5 p.m., H. Brown Thornton, Photo Transfer

Sunday, Feb. 1, 3 – 5 p.m., Steven Chapp, Linocut & Photopolymer Prints

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 255-0068/ (803) 238-2351 – if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com

For its January 2009 exhibition, if ART Gallery presents Salon III, an exhibition of prints by gallery artists at if ART Gallery, 1223 Lincoln St., Columbia, S.C. The opening reception will be Thursday, January 15, 2009, 5 – 10 p.m. The exhibition will be installed salon-style at the gallery’s first floor and continues if ART’s salon-style exhibitions; in December 2008, Salon I & II took place simultaneously at the gallery and Gallery 80808/Vista Studios in Columbia.

Among the printmaking techniques represented in the exhibition are etchings, dry points, lithographs, woodcuts, linocuts, photopolymer prints, embossings, monotypes, silkscreens and photo transfers.

During the exhibition, gallery artists Steven Chapp of Easley, S.C., Phil Garrett of Greenville, S.C., Brown Thornton of Aiken, S.C., and Marcelo Novo of Columbia will give demonstrations of various printmaking techniques. For times and demonstrated techniques, see above.

Artists in the exhibition include Karel Appel, Jeri Burdick, Carl Blair, Lynn Chadwick, Steven Chapp, Corneille, Jeff Donovan, Jacques Doucet, Phil Garrett, Herbert Gentry, Tonya Gregg, John Hultberg, Richard Hunt, Sjaak Korsten, Lucebert, Reiner Mährlein, Sam Middleton, Eric Miller, Joan Mitchell, Dorothy Netherland, Marcelo Novo, Hannes Postma, Edward Rice, Anton Rooskens, Kees Salentijn, Laura Spong, Brown Thornton, Bram van Velde, Katie Walker, David Yaghjian and Paul Yanko.

if ARTwalk: Salon I & II: December 11- 24, 2008

2008-11-30T15:50:00.000-05:00

For exhibition installation images, click here.

THE SALON I & II

Dec. 11 – 24, 2008

an exhibition at two Columbia, SC, locations:

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

808 Lady Street

if ART Gallery

1223 Lincoln Street

Reception and ifART Walk: Thursday, Dec. 11, 5 – 10 p.m.

at and between both locations

Opening Hours:

Weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Saturday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Sunday, 1 – 5 p.m.

& by appointment

Open Christmas Eve until 7 p.m.

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 255-0068/ (803) 238-2351 – if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com

For its December 2008 exhibition, if ART Gallery presents The Salon I & II, an exhibition at two Columbia, SC, locations: if ART Gallery and Gallery 80808/Vista Studios. On Thursday, December 11, 2008, 5 – 10 p.m., if ART will hold opening receptions at both locations. The ifART Walk will be on Lady and Lincoln Streets, between both locations, which are around the corner from each other.

The exhibitions will present art by if ART Gallery artists, installed salon-style at both Gallery 80808 and if ART. Artists in the exhibitions include two new additions to if ART Gallery, Columbia ceramic artist Renee Rouillier and the prominent African-American collage and mixed-media artist Sam Middleton, an 81-year-old expatriate who has lived in the Netherlands since the early 1960s.

Other artists in the exhibition include Karel Appel, Aaron Baldwin, Jeri Burdick, Carl Blair, Lynn Chadwick, Steven Chapp, Stephen Chesley, Corneille, Jeff Donovan, Jacques Doucet, Phil Garrett, Herbert Gentry, Tonya Gregg, Jerry Harris, Bill Jackson, Sjaak Korsten, Peter Lenzo, Sam Middleton, Eric Miller, Dorothy Netherland, Marcelo Novo, Matt Overend, Anna Redwine, Paul Reed, Edward Rice, Silvia Rudolf, Kees Salentijn, Laura Spong, Tom Stanley, Christine Tedesco, Brown Thornton, Leo Twiggs, Bram van Velde, Katie Walker, Mike Williams, David Yaghjian, Paul Yanko and Don Zurlo.

Artist's Statement: Phil Garrett

2008-07-12T14:08:00.000-04:00

Kitakata Runner I, 2001

Monotype/Chine Colle

10 x 8 in

$1,000

My work is informed by nature, a kind of mythical nature. The power of storms, the spiritual quality of the elements, the beauty, race and ferocity of animals -- something greater than myself, something I can't comprehend. Painting and making monotypes is my search for the mystery within the subject, within myself.

---Phillip M. Garrett, 10/21/2004

Resume: Phil Garrett

2008-07-08T13:56:00.000-04:00

Memento/Ryoanji II, 2007

Monotype

22 x 17 1/2 in

$1,000

Gallery Affiliation
if ART Gallery , Columbia SC

Selected Collections
South Carolina State Collection
SC State Museum
U.S. State Department
Greenville County Museum of Art
State of Hawaii
McDonald’s Corporation
RBC Insurance
Wachovia Bank
Sterling Drug Company
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
Friends of the Arts, Spartanburg, SC
Southern Progress ( Southern Living) Birmingham Ala.
Bank of America
Price-Waterhouse Coopers
BASF Corporation
Carolina Telephone
Palmetto Bank
Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice, Winston Salem, NC
Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough, Columbia, SC
Glaxo-Smith-Kline, Morris Communications

Selected Awards
Oct., 1991 Merit Award Easel Painting, Springs Annual Juried Exhibition, Traveling Show (Art of the Carolinas, 1991-92)
Dec., 1990 Stuart M. Egnal Award, The Print Club of Philadelphia, Alternative Situations for Contemporary Printmaking (The 65th Annual Competition)
Oct., 1990 Best Graphic, Springs Annual Juried Exhibition, Traveling Show (Art of The Carolinas, 1990-91)
April 1989 Special Projects Award, South Carolina Arts Commission
Oct., 1989 Best Graphic, Springs Annual Juried Exhibition, Traveling Show

Selected Solo Exhibitions
Pelter Gallery, Greenville SC., April. 2006
Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC, Sept. 2002
City Art Gallery, Columbia, SC, Feb., 1999
Morris Gallery, Columbia, SC, Nov., 1997
University of South Carolina Sumter, Sumter, SC, Feb., 1997
Somerhill Gallery, Chapel Hill, NC, Dec., 1996
Morris Gallery, Columbia, SC, Sept., 1996
Columbia College, Columbia, SC, Jan., 1995
Morris Gallery, Columbia, SC, Oct., 1993
Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte, NC, Sept., 1990
Kershaw County Arts Center, Camden, SC, Sept., 1989
Asheville Museum of Art, Asheville, NC, Nov., 1984
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC

Selected Group Exhibitions
Jan., 2005 New x 3, Blue Spiral 1 Gallery, Asheville, NC
Sep., 2004 Cross Pollination / Phil Garrett and Patti Brady, Columbia College, Columbia SC
Nov., 2002 From the Studio, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Jan., 2002 See How We Are, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
July 2001 Reconstructing Eden, Looking at the Contemporary American Landscape, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC

Biography: Phil Garrett

2008-06-12T14:38:00.002-04:00

Phil Garrett (b. 1948)

Phil Garrett is among his native South Carolina’s most prominent artists. In addition to his paintings, he is especially known as a printmaker. Garrett studied printmaking at the Honolulu Academy and received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, where in the 1970s he also did post-graduate studies in printmaking. From the mid-1980s through the early 1990s he worked with Tamarind Master Printer Cappy Kuhn at her print studio, Winstone Press, in Mocksville, N.C. In 1998, Garrett founded King Snake Press in Greenville, S.C., where has produced monoprints with dozens of artists. He is represented in the S.C. State Art Collection and has exhibited at the Greenville County (S.C.) Museum of Art, the Asheville (N.C.) Museum of Art, the Print Club of Philadelphia and in many commercial and institutional galleries. His works on paper are in several public and private collections in Europe, Japan and the United States.

Image: Phil Garrett, front, with his wife, painter Patti Brady, and ceramic artist Bob Chance playing with The Fine Art Ramblers.

Career: Phil Garrett

2008-06-11T14:49:00.000-04:00

Kyoto Variation (Lotus) I, 2006

Monotype, Chine Colle

32 x 25

Phil Garrett was born in South Carolina in 1948. He studied at the University of South Carolina and the Greenville County Museum School in the late 1960s. During the 70s he studied printmaking at the Honolulu Academy with Gabor Peterdi, and continued his studies at the San Francisco Art Institute where he received a BFA and did postgraduate studies in printmaking until 1977. Since returning to South Carolina in the early 80s, he has continued to paint and pursue his interest in printmaking. In the mid 80s through early 90s he worked with Cappy Kuhn (Tamarind Master Printer) at her collaborative Print Studio, Winstone Press. This collaboration produced several large lithographs and numerous series of monotypes. During the mid 90s Garrett worked with Art Thomas in Charleston SC again producing monotypes. In 1998 he acquired a large Intaglio press and founded King Snake Press for the production of monotypes in his studio in Greenville, SC. Beginning in April 2001 and continuing through Oct. 2001 Garrett collaborated with 25 artists to produce monotypes for the exhibit “SEE HOW WE ARE” at the Greenville Co. Museum of Art. Garrett continues to produce monotypes and to collaborate with an ever expanding group of artists from the Southeast and elsewhere. His prints and paintings are in public and Private collections in the USA, Europe and Japan. In October 2005 and 2006 he lectured and taught workshops on Acrylic Painting Methods in Art Schools in the cities of Osaka, Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Fukuoka Japan sponsored by Golden Acrylic and Turner company of Osaka.

Works of Art: Phil Garrett

2008-06-03T15:14:00.020-04:00

All works of art by Phil Garrett are available at if ART Gallery, 1223 Lincoln Street, Columbia, SC.

Contact Wim Roefs at if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com or (803) 255-0068/(803) 238-2351.

Olivera’s Colt, 2009,
Acrylic on Panel, 12 x 9 in., $ 675

Penland Trout II, 2011, acrylic on panel, 24 x 24 in., $3,800

No Title (Horse), 2008
Monotype, chine colle
12 x 9 in., $ 250

Equine Head/Nikko IV, 2009
Acrylic on Panel, 4 x 4 in., $ 250

Equine Head/Nikko I, 2009
Acrylic on Panel, 12 x 12 in., $ 850

Icarus, 2009
Acrylic on Panel, 12 x 9 in., $ 675

Blue Spectre, 2009
Acrylic on Panel, 10 x 8 in., $ 675

Memento Kyoto VI, 2009, acrylic on linen applied to
canvas, 30 x 30 in., $4,500

Memento Kyoto V, 2009, acrylic on linen applied to
canvas, 36 x 40 in., $6,500

Equine Head/Nikko II, 2009
Acrylic on Panel, 4 x 4 in., $ 250

Equine Head/Nikko V, 2009
Acrylic on Panel, 4 x 4 in., $ 250

Sacred Attendant/Nikko, 2009
Acrylic on Linen on Panel, 40 x 36 in., $ 6,000

Equine Head/Nikko III, 2009
Acrylic on Panel, 4 x 4 in., $ 250

Nikko/Horse Variations III, 2009
Monotype, 32 x 25 in., $ 1,800

Storms on The Ocean, 2009
Acrylic on Panel, 9 x 12 in., $ 750

Nikko Spectre, 2009
Acrylic on panel, 11 x 8 in., $ 750

Masked Equine, 2009
Acrylic on panel, 10 x 8 in., $ 675

Tete Bleu, 2009
Acrylic on panel, 8 x 8 in., $ 500

Nikko/Horse Variations IV, 2009
Monotype, 32 x 25 in., $ 1,800

No Title (Horse), 2001
Monotype, 15 x 15 in., $ 450

No Title (Horse), 2001
Monotype, 18 x 14 1/2 in., $ 500

Slipper Orchid I, 2004

Monotype, 15 1/2 x 15 in., $ 350

Memento/Ryoanji II, 2007
Monotype, 22 x 17 1/2 in., $1,000

No Title (Horse), 2001
Monotype, 16 x 15 in., $ 450

Torso Variation, 1999
Monotype, 17 x 15 in., $ 5oo

Momento/Ryoanji VII, 2007
Monotype, 26 x 20 in., $ 1,200

Ryoanji/Lotus I, 2007
Monotype, chine colle
29 1/2 x 22 in., $ 1,400

Torso Study V, 1999
Gouache, graphite on paper
25 1/2 x 22 1/2 in., $ 1,650

Ryoanji/Lotus II, 2007
Monotype, chine colle
22 x 30 in., $ 1,400

Momento/Ryoanji IX, 2007
Monotype
29 1/4 x 22 in., $ 1,200

No Title (Horse), 2001
Monotype, 24 3/4 x 22 1/4 in., $ 1,000

Kitakata Runner I, 2001
Monotype/Chine Colle, 10 x 8 in., $1,000

Nikko Horse Variation X, 2010, monotype and chine colle

Image 12 x 16 in., paper 20 1/2 x 24 in.

Floating World/Memento V, 2008
Monotype, chine colle
12 x 16 in., $ 550

No Title (Horse), 2008
Monotype, chine colle
12 x 9 in., $ 250

The Inventory: February 15-26, 2008

2008-02-15T13:19:00.000-05:00

Bull II, 1991

Monotype/Chine Cholle

21 x 17 in

if ART

presents at

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

808 Lady St., Columbia, S.C.

THE INVENTORY:

A Group Show of if ART artists

Feb. 15 – 26, 2008

Artists’ Reception: Friday, Feb. 15, 5 – 10 p.m.

Opening Hours:

Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Sundays, 1 – 5 p.m.

Weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. and by appointment

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 238-2351 – wroefs@sc.rr.com

For its February exhibition, if ART presents The Inventory, a group exhibition of artists from if ART Gallery. The show will consist of many new works by if ART artists as well as older pieces from the gallery’s inventory.

Included in the show will be work by Columbia artists Jeff Donovan, Mary Gilkerson, Marcelo Novo, Anna Redwine and David Yaghjian. Other South Carolina artists include Carl Blair, Jeri Burdick, Phil Garrett, Bill Jackson, Peter Lenzo, Dorothy Netherland, Matt Overend, Edward Rice, Tom Stanley, Christine Tedesco, H. Brown Thornton, Leo Twiggs, Katie Walker and Paul Yanko. Furthermore, the show will present work by former South Carolina residents Tonya Gregg, Eric Miller and Andy Moon. Also included are California collage artist Jerry Harris, Dutch painter Kees Salentijn and German artists Roland Albert, Klaus Hartmann and Silvia Rudolf.

if ART Gallery Opening

2006-11-12T15:05:00.000-05:00

Dark Forces, 1991

Monotype/Chine Colle

21 x 17 in

OPEN NOW:

if ART Gallery

1223 Lincoln St.

Columbia, S.C.

Gallery Hours:

Most days, except Sunday, from 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM

& by appointment (call 803-238-2351)

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART

(803) 238-2351 – wroefs@sc.rr.com

On Nov. 10, 2006, if ART, International Fine Art Services, opened if ART Gallery. The gallery is at 1223 Lincoln St., Columbia, S.C., in the Vista district, across from the Blue Marlin restaurant. For more information, contact if ART’s Wim Roefs at (803) 238-2351 or wroefs@sc.rr.com.

If ART Gallery carries the work of South Carolina artists Leo Twiggs, Mike Williams, Carl Blair, Tom Stanley, Virginia Scotchie, Tonya Gregg, Peter Lenzo, Jeff Donovan, David Yaghjian, Anna Redwine, John Monteith, Christine Tedesco, Brown Thornton, Paul Yanko, Laura Spong, Steven Chapp, Katie Walker, Edward Rice, Aaron Baldwin, Bill Jackson, Herb Parker, Dorothy Netherland, Eric Miller, Mary Gilkerson, Matt Overend, Kim Keats and Phil Garrett. The gallery also carries work by Dutch artist Kees Salentijn, German artists Reiner Mahrlein, Roland Albert and Klaus Hartmann, and Washington Color Field painter Paul Reed.

The gallery also carries a wide selection of unframed and lithographs, silkscreens, etchings and other limited edition prints by such nationally and even internationally prominent artists such as Karel Appel, Richard Hunt, Bram van Velde, John Hultberg, Sam Middleton, Benny Andrews, Hannes Postma, Corneille, Lucebert and Alvin Hollingsworth.

Since March 2005, if ART, International Fine Art Services, has organized commercial gallery exhibitions in Columbia, mostly at Vista Studios/Gallery 80808. In addition to presenting gallery artists and special exhibitions at if ART Gallery, if ART will continue to organize exhibitions at Vista Studios/Gallery 80808. The company also provides curatorial and exhibition design services.

Most recently, in September, if ART was hired by the Technical College of the Lowcountry to install dozens of art works at the college’s new building in Bluffton, S.C. Earlier this year, if ART installed two exhibitions of work from the South Carolina state art collection at the Sumter (S.C.) Gallery of Art. The if ART production “South Carolina Birds: A Fine Art Exhibition,” curated by company owner Wim Roefs, is at the Pickens County Museum of Art & History until Nov. 11, 2006. The exhibition opened in 2004 at the Sumter Gallery of Art and traveled to the Burroughs & Chapin Museum in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and the City Gallery at Waterfront Park in Charleston, S.C. Roefs wrote the essay for the exhibition catalogue, which he also edited.

In 2005, Roefs curated exhibitions of work by Leo Twiggs and Carl Blair for the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County in Camden, S.C. He also curated an exhibition of paintings by Marcelo Novo for HoFP Gallery in Columbia, S.C., and wrote the essay for the exhibition catalogue. Earlier this year, Roefs curated an exhibition with work by Dutch artist Kees Salentijn for the Center of the Arts in Rock Hill, S.C. In May, he curated an indoors/outdoors sculpture exhibition for the city of Dillon, S.C.

Roefs contributed an essay to the catalogue for the exhibition “A Collection for Margaret: The Personal and Private Art of Carl Blair.” The exhibition is on view at Hampton III Gallery in Greenville until Nov. 11. Roefs teaches a course in African-American art at the University of South Carolina.

Since March 2005, if ART has published eight small exhibition catalogues. The catalogues featured short essays by Roefs about Aaron Baldwin, Mike Williams, Anna Redwine, Tom Stanley, Carl Blair, Janet Orselli, Matt Overend, Laura Spong, Leo Twiggs, Jeff Donovan, John Monteith, Dorothy Netherland, Herb Parker and Phil Garrett and Mary Gilkerson and the process of making monotypes.

Essay: Phil Garrett on Monotypes

2006-09-06T14:54:00.000-04:00

Horse Latitudes XI, 1994

Monotype

17 1/2 x 17 1/2 in

PHIL GARRETT & MARY GILKERSON:

MAKING MONOTYPES

“We need tunes,” Phil Garrett says.

“Yeah,” Mary Gilkerson answers.

It’s a Friday afternoon in August at King Snake Press in Greenville, S.C. Gilkerson is painting on a Plexiglass plate, working on a monotype, as she had been that morning, the day before, and on a few other occasions in the past two years. Garrett hovers in the margins of the process, cleaning plates, cutting paper, turning on the fan when fumes build up and putting on music before he takes center stage as master printer, turning Gilkerson’s completed image into a one-of-a-kind print.

“Is this okay?” Garrett asks after a while, presumably about the tango tunes he put on a few minutes earlier, “or is it annoying?” It’s fine, Gilkerson assures him.

Gilkerson is relatively new to the medium, certainly in terms of creating a body of work for exhibition. Garrett, on the other hand, is both as an artist and printer among the region’s more prominent producers of monotypes. He has completed extensive studies in printmaking, including at the San Francisco Art Institute and with Tamarind Master Printer Cappy Kuhn. He has been making monotypes since the mid-1980s.

Since Garrett launched King Snake Press in 1998, the medium has spread like a happy virus through Upstate South Carolina and beyond. Artists as different as Edward Rice, Carl Blair and Katie Walker have made prints at Garrett’s press. In 2001, the Greenville County (S.C.) Museum of Art mounted an exhibition of monotypes produced by 25 artists with Garrett at his press.

The process is truly cooperative. Garrett takes care of the technical issues, allowing the artist to concentrate fully on creating images. While Gilkerson paints, Garrett cleans the plate she finished a while back and from which he just made a print. That’s the glamour of being a master printer. “That’s right,” Garrett says, “clean up the mess.”

There’s more to it, of course. Garrett might mix the different colors of ink that artists paint with. He provides general guidance, explains the technical aspects of the process and can suggest what paper artists should use. Most importantly, he does the precision work of turning the temporary image on the plate to a more permanent one on paper. For that, he first takes a sheet out of a tray with water. To remove the surface water from the sheet, he places clean, thin newsprint sheets on the wet paper. With his hand, he gently presses the newsprint, which absorbs excess water.

Garrett then lays a painted plate on his printing press, face up, placing it exactly in the desired spot. He is guided by a grid of registration marks on the press bed that shows the contours of different plate and paper sizes. Garrett drapes the paper over the plate, making sure paper and plate connect at just the right place. He covers plate and paper with a blanket and runs everything through the press by manually turning a crank. Plate, paper and blanket roll underneath the press’s metal roller, which extends the width of the press bed and produces the pressure necessary to transfer an image. Garrett runs the press several times for each print, back and forth, turning one dial on either end of the roller to adjust pressure. When he’s done, the reverse image of Gilkerson’s Plexiglass painting appears on the paper.

Gilkerson, a Columbia, S.C., native and resident, is a prominent presence on the art scene of South Carolina’s Midlands. As an artist, she is mainly known as a painter; the current show is her first exhibition of monotypes. Gilkerson also teaches art at Columbia College and is an art critic and curator.

This Friday afternoon, Gilkerson produces several Chine Collé monotypes. Chine Collé prints are printed on a thin paper that is attached to a larger, thicker, sturdier sheet of regular printing paper. As Gilkerson works on a plate, Garrett covers his face with a protective device. He sprays an adhesive on a sheet of natural-color, soft-beige Chine Collé paper the size of the plate Gilkerson is painting on. He then lifts a backing sheet out of the water tray, places the smaller, sprayed Chine Collé sheet on the damp paper and runs both through his press, adhering the smaller sheet to the larger paper.

When Gilkerson is done painting, Garrett takes her plate and hands her a clean one. While Gilkerson goes at it again, Garrett puts the freshly painted plate on the press, making sure the plate and Chine Collé sheet line up. Then everything goes through the press.

The Chine Collé paper Gilkerson uses is Japanese Kitakata rice paper. Because it’s a different color than the white Rives BFK support paper, the Chine Collé paper helps set off the image. It also instantly adds a color – its own – to the work where Gilkerson leaves negative space in her images.

“You get an integrated color,” Garrett says. “The thinner Japanese paper helps you show all the mark making. It picks up an incredible amount of detail and nuance. Even with not that much ink on the plate, in areas where interesting things happen, Chine Collé can really help, picking up great subtlety.”

Visually, Chine Collé further separates the image from the background, Gilkerson adds. “The ink also sits on the rice paper differently than it does on printing paper. I could get a similar effect if I used two plates, one for a background toning color and one to create the image on, but I just haven’t tried that yet because I’ve enjoyed the paper-to-paper contrast so much.”

Monotypes are in part characterized by the way artists’ brush marks are visible in the print. “It’s the painterly print,” Garrett says. Gilkerson’s brushwork on the plate is loose, looser than in many of her paintings, it seems, though she works deliberately and with restraint. As she works, the transparent plate sits on the flat, also transparent cover of a light box. The light shining from underneath gives Gilkerson a maximum view of how the work is developing, where there’s ink or isn’t, where she has left negative space. She applies ink and at times takes some off again with a rag.

Gilkerson is painting landscapes, and early in the process she often places a copy of a photo between the plate and light box, painting directly from the copy – in a sense painting on top of it. “It’s just a faster way to get the composition down,” she says. “At some stage the photo has to come out, otherwise it gets in the way. Then you can’t see anything anymore.” In many cases, Gilkerson has first reversed the photo on her computer, ending up painting the reverse of the scene she photographed. During the printing, the painted image itself will be reversed again to the original direction of the photograph, echoing the scene that intrigued Gilkerson to begin with.

Monotypes are one of a kind because the Plexiglass plate is untreated and won’t retain the image. Unlike lithography, intaglio or other print methods, printing a monotype can’t be repeated to get the same result several times. After the monotype is made, an artist can at best use the residual ink on the plate to make a faint second image, a so-called ghost print. Sometimes artists like the ghost print so much that they keep it, too, as a second but different print. Sometimes they use the residual ink on a used plate as the start for another monotype.

Garrett introduced Gilkerson to monotypes during a workshop he did for Columbia College students a decade ago. “I enjoyed the process,” Gilkerson said, “making a handful of monotypes a year when Phil would come in for workshops. But it wasn't until I started using thinner paint in my paintings three years ago, scratching and wiping out areas as well as making direct painterly marks, that I began to think about making monotypes on a more consistent basis.”

The sessions at King Snake Press have affected her paintings, Gilkerson says. “Making monotypes has started a dialogue between my paintings and prints, with a change in technique or process in one sparking a change in the other. The looseness of the monotype process has been finding its way over to the paintings.”

Monotypes are a good entry into printmaking for painters who have shied away from printmaking, Garrett wrote in the 2003 catalogue Edward Rice: Recent Monotypes, published by the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Ga. “Since monotype is very closely related to drawing and painting … it doesn’t require learning a new set of skills and, due to its process, relies on one’s skills as a painter.”

Wim Roefs

2006

Phil Garrett & Mary Gilkerson: Monotypes: September 8-19, 2006

2006-08-25T18:13:00.000-04:00

if ART, International Fine Art Services

presents at

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

808 Lady St., Columbia, S.C.

Phil Garrett & Mary Gilkerson:

M o n o t y p e s

Sept. 8 – 19, 2006

Artists’ Reception:

Friday, Sept. 8, 5 – 10 p.m.

Opening Hours:

Saturday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Sunday, 1 – 5 p.m.

Weekdays, Noon – 7 p.m. and by appointment

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 238-2351 – (803) 799-7170 – wroefs@sc.rr.com

For its September exhibition at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, if ART, International Fine Art Services, will present a show of monotypes by Phil Garrett and Mary Gilkerson. The opening reception for the exhibition is Sept. 8, 5:00 – 10:00 p.m. Opening hours are Saturdays, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.; Sundays, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.; and weekdays 12:00 – 7:00 p.m. or by appointment. For more information or to make an appointment, contact if ART’s Wim Roefs at (803) 238-2351 or wroefs@sc.rr.com.

Columbia native and resident Gilkerson is a prominent presence in the art scene of South Carolina’s Midlands. She is painter with a long and full exhibition history. She also teaches art at Columbia College, and is an art critic and curator. Gilkerson holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in art from the University of South Carolina in Columbia. This will be her first exhibition of monotypes, which she produced at Greenville’s King Snake Press in cooperation with Master Printer Garrett.

Garrett, a native and resident of Greenville, S.C., is both as a painter and printer among the region’s more prominent artists. He has completed extensive studies in printmaking, including at the San Francisco Art Institute and with Tamarind Master Printer Cappy Kuhn.

SOLD WORKS OF ART

2005-09-30T17:12:00.007-04:00

Nikko/Horse Variations I, 2009
Monotype
30 x 22 in.

Floating World/Memento IV, 2008
Monotype, chine colle
12 x 16 in., $ 550

Encounter at Nikko, 2009
Acrylic on Panel
8 x 10 in.
$ 750

Separate But Equal, 2009
Acrylic on Panel
9 x 12 in.

Nikko Runner I, 2009
Acrylic on Panel
12 x 9 in.
$ 675

Memento/Nikko, 2008
Acrylic on Panel
30 x 30 in.

Bischoff's Colt, 2009
Acrylic on panel
10 x 8 in.
$ 675

Floating World/Memento VI, 2008
Monotype, chine colle
12 x 16 inches
$ 550

Floating World/Memento III, 2008
Monotype, chine colle
12 x 16 inches
$ 550