Allison and John explain their artist books.

Allison and John at their artist book stand in Seongnam City (Korea) 2008, at the International Artist Book Exhibition. On the perspex shelves behind the table there are many of John and Allison's 100 artist books on display. We were very busy for all of the hours we manned the display in between being taken to famous places of significance by the Fairs organisers, Narae Kim and our interpreter Sunny. http://www.buynz.org.nz/webapps/site/68502/88378/news/news-more.html?newsid=179336

Old Awahuri Home

The Awahuri Home. I have just discovered this beautiful old building in Awahuri has finally collapsed and been removed. The house has been a local tourist spot for at least the last 30 years and has fallen to the wind, rain, summer heat, and frosty evenings. It inspired a writer from Palmerston North, Mr Phil Collins, to research the history and produce a fine little book about the owners over the last 120 years. I am going to send the file to my friend Ged at Screenprinting Services and have some copies of the photo reproduced on canvas.

Lunch at New Pacific Studio Open Day

Leahlani Johnson, Lisa Matthys and Emily enjoying company and lunch on Sunday Exhibition.


Leahlani Johnson explaining her presentation of her found objects and the simplifying of technology. The exhibition of her work was laid out and displayed in the Garage Studio for the set of 12 observers who were there at this sitting.
Sibylle Eimermacher talks to visitors to her exhibition at the New Pacific Studio. The sculptures were a great discussion point.

Tony King in the Greytown Cobblestone Village 'Printery'

Tony King showing Allison Brebner the work he and Heather have achieved inside the 'Printery' at the Cobblestone Village. This platen press did not have all its working parts so will soon be replaced by another old letterpress machine in working order. Displays, demonstrations and classes will be held here when the work is completed.
Tony King outside the old building he and Heather King are restoring for displaying a selection of letterpress equipment in the 'Printery' at the Greytown Cobblestone complex.
View from Tony and Heather King's house as visitors partake of Heather's lovely tea, coffee and lemon cake.

Jo Melville visits the Homeprint Book Art Centre

'Spot' is the acrylic painting by David Brebner ($3500) with a litho called 'Spot' of a girl holding an outsize Monarch Caterpillar. These works a part of a group show by David, Cliff Whiting, Michael Smither, Paul Gummer and John and Allison Brebner.

Jo Melville visits

Jo Melville has just returned from Australia having trained as an Art Therapist. She is keen to use printmaking techniques and gather ideas and equipment from Homeprint to help her with teaching children and adult classes. Here, Allison is showing her a copy of 'Skim' and had just shown her an acrylic painting of a monarch butterfly painted by David Brebner.

Allan Harnett's Oamaru Stone Sculpture.

Allan Harnett's Oamaru stone carving of an octopus, 'Wheke'. This carving is about 600 mm wide, 450 mm high and 380 mm deep. The price is $3500. This piece is among a set of 16 stone carvings available from Allan or through me at Homeprint Gallery.

Michael Smither artist in the landscape.

Michael Smither about to walk down the last few steps onto his favourite beach for his morning constitutional.
Michael Smither rock pool screen print being measured up for glass for framing. This print has been screen printed using computer generated separations and printed with extreme accuracy in Don Tee's Screen printing workshop in Onehunga. 'Artrite'
The commercial poster on the floor was purchased by me from the Govette Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth.

Albion Flatbed Table Press.

The Albion Flat bed press, manufactured in 1872, by Hopkinson and Cope, Finsbury, London is used regularly by visiting artists in the Homeprint Studio. The platen size is 10" x 15" so is quite handy for works up to A3 paper size.

Don Pybus solarplate printing

Don has been attending Homeprint night class for 10 years. Using the solarplate process he is printing the illustration for his son's wedding invitations. The Hunters Proof Press is a simple lever, flat bed press, circa 90 years old. The drying racks are slotted between the open trays of lead type.

Kay Flavell from New Pacific Studio

Kay with two of her International artists, Leahlani Johnson from Sydney and Sibylle Eimermacher from Holland/Germany. New Pacific Studio is taking a new lease of life with a wonderful exhibition by Leahlani and Siblle on Sunday the 28th of March.
While visiting Homeprint Book Art Studio, Kay purchased an A4 relief printing press and a set of High Grade carving tools that John imports from Japan. The press is safe and portable and will be useful for the visiting artists and for teaching local children's art classes. www.newpacificstudio.org/home/home.html

Emily and Chris working on new set of A4 Presses

Emily and Chris from Canada are our latest WWOOFers. Their first job was to sandpaper the edges of the boards and now paint the printing surfaces with varnish. Then the task will be to undercoat the outside of the boards and topcoat with yellow enamel paint. If there is time, we will work together to drill, screw and bolt the hardware to complete the press manufacture.

'Sunstrike' Homeprint's new UV light box.

The 'Sunstrike' UV lightbox has been designed and manufactured by me to meet the demand for portable lightboxes that can manage multiple solarplate and silk screen UV exposure. A simple on off switch, generous size 620mm x 400mm, electronic balast (for speed in hitting the appropriate UV level) and cheapness of replacement lamps are all features of this design.

Ngati Taepa, artist.

Ngati Taepa worked in the Homeprint Sudio with me to create this solarplate. It was a 12" x 14" plate and was used to create blind embossings on dampened art paper and used to make a series of coloured koru images for exhibition. One of these relief prints was used as an illustration on the front cover of an issue of 'Art New Zealand'.

Three big kahawai.

These 3 kahawai were caught at Tangimoana and are a similar size to the 4 big ones I caught surfcasting in the weekend at Akitio. They weigh around 2.5 kilos or 5 pound each. (the biggest was 63 centimetres long) They are a strong fighting fish and called sea trout in Australia. Allison and I have 4 favourite ways of cooking them, slow baking, smoking, egg and bread crumb and raw cubes with seasoning.

Imperial Royal Flatbed Press.

John cut this lino cut of the feature 'Imperial Royal' 1828 flatbed relief printing press at the Homeprint studio. This image has been used in my new business card created by our WWOOFer, Ashley Cox. www.youtube.com/watch?v=80H5b5VcQbw

Brebner family long weekend at Akitio.

Sunrise on the Pacific Ocean at Akitio, Sunday morning.
Allison cleaning the 6 big kahawai John caught on his birthday. The seagulls are trying to have a piece of the action.
A grey heron dives down out of the pine tree beside the McKellar bach.
Allison, Russell and Debra's Mum are catching the waves on the Akitio beach.
Leo laughing at Allison's game.
Russell holds Leo after he has woken up from sleep.

Michael signs solarplate relief prints

Michael whistles as he works through the small editions of solarplate relief prints that I printed for him at Homeprint. This set of 6 felt tip pen drawings are printed on 190gsm incisioni paper, signed, numbered, with around 30 copies of each. www.theimprint.co.nz/michael_bio.htm

David's tomatoes

David's crop of cherry tomatoes from the front of his flat. WWW.UR.CO.NZ

John leads printing workshop at a country school.

The first colour set of relief printmaking. Waterbased ink is easy to use and easy to clean up at the end of the day.

John leading a two day printmaking workshop for talented students at a country school.
The students drew their ideas onto polystyrene plate and used the Homeprint A4 relief printing press to print a set of 5 clear images. Using the same plate with some extra drawing the students overprinted with different colours and created beautiful art works on their theme of sports and games.

Cliff Whiting demonstrating wood engraving technique

Cliff Whiting is demonstrating to me his wood block engraving technique. The hardwood end grain is resting on a leather sand bag and Cliff is using an engraving tool to scrape and carve the detail in his block. The end grain is very hard and flat and allows for great detail. The cuts are reasonably shallow but are deep enough to result in a wonderfully sharp, detailed relief print.www.theimprint.co.nz

Paul Gummer with bookbinding class

Lucy demonstrates glueing the bookcloth to the boards to the class.
T.J's book.
The 'making a journal day ' was fantastic. We measured, cut, glued, embossed and raved!
14 students was the biggest group Paul and had worked with over the last 8 years. Paul didn't sit down the whole day as he was helping with logic, technique, quality and inspiration.
Congratulations to him and to all the young artists for the days results.www.theimprint.co.nz

Skim - artist book from Homeprint.

Skim is the latest artist book Allison and I have published. There are 30 copies and we have sent off 3 copies to Ilde, Barcelona, Spain for an International Artist Book exhibition. A copy each to Stefan Bartkowiak Hamburg, Kim Tae-chol Cheong-ju City, Narae Kim Seoul, Werner Enke Schweinfurt, Monica Oppen Australia and The Alexander Turnbull Library. A feature of this book is its 'Gravity Binding'. www.homeprint.co.nz

Liz and Leo

Liz Kirk holding Leo with Allison looking at Debra. Liz was down from Auckland for a few days creating new choreography for a new show at Centrepoint Theatre.

Michael Smither

Michael Smither is laying out his coloured tiles to demonstrate to me his colour theory relating to music. This is Michael's invention and he has been working on this theory for 40 or so years. My couple of days with Michael and Gian were very fruitful. I saw and took photographs of Michaels latest paintings in production. On the day of my departure I sneaked down to the Otama beach and caught 2 nice fat Kahawai as a gift for Michael and Gian. www.theimprint.co.nz

Cliff Whiting

My yellowXpress 5000 printing press in Cliff Whiting's Studio, Russell, Bay of Islands.
Cliffs studio is jam packed with wonderful art, sculpture and equipment! The painting you can see is one of a series of the first waka to land in New Zealand.

Ashley's First Chicken Crockpot

Ashley (current WWOOFer) serves up his first family meal (English traditional Chicken Crock Pot) to Don Pybus, Allison and I. Enough for 2 lovely meals.

Glenda's Crayfish

Glenda and Earl join Stuart and I on many occasions for a game of golf. I drive my old golf cart and they come along for the ride! This wonderful 1.3 kilo crayfish is a gift from Glenda after she was on a diving expedition at Makara. Thanks Glenda this fish was SO enjoyed by Ashley (English WWOOFer), Allison and I. The best!