5-week Monochromatic Gum Bichromate & Cyanotype Duotone with Martyn Grimmer

Tuesday 4 June – 2 July 2024
1.30pm – 4.30pm

Led by Martyn Grimmer   

Back by popular demand –  another opportunity to work with these incredible processes over 5 weeks

Gum Bichromate is a beautiful, early photographic technique originating from the latter half of the 19th Century.  A single negative is used, and it is a contact process using just one negative, which is exposed onto a sheet of paper. Several layers of watercolour, gum arabic and sensitizer are built up to realise a full tonal image. It is a slow, mesmerizing process, and is remarkably rich in subtle tones.

Cyanotype is also a contact printing process from the late 19th Century, but can also be used in conjunction with Gum Bichromate. The usual colour of Prussian blue of the cyanotype can be additionally enhanced with a duotone colour overlay with the gum Bichromate technique, giving the print an enhanced sense of space

Martyn Grimmer  is a visiting Lecturer at Bath Spa, Brighton and Newport and visiting tutor at numerous independent print studios in the UK. He is a studio holder at Spike Island, Bristol, working with a variety of printmaking techniques in conjunction with 19th Century Photographic Processes, in particular Photogravure, Cyanotype and Multi Layer Gum Bichromate.

In addition to making his own prints, Martyn Grimmer is a freelance Master Printer. He has worked with many major UK artists to produce limited edition prints including Albert Irvin, Peter Howson, John Wood and Paul Harrison. Selected Galleries Grimmer has exhibited at include, The Whitworth, Ingleby Gallery Edinburgh, De La Warr Pavillion and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.

Martyn Grimmer