The Netherlands Workshop

Posted on October 6th, 2008 in Art & Theory, Collodion Images, Collodion Workshops, Education, Europe

I just returned from The Netherlands (some call it Holland). I did a two day workshop there at the Pieter Brueghel Art and Culture School. Jeroen de Wijs set it up and made it happen (thanks Jeroen!). He was a great host and the people at the school were wonderful too.

There were six attendees/students and we got to spend all day Saturday making 4×5 black glass Ambrotypes and Alumitypes. I don’t do these workshops for money, and even if it were profitable, there’s a far more important and rewarding motive to do these. To see people eager to learn a new way to express themselves and then for them to get their hands on the material and make something within a few hours of learning about it is amazing to me.

It doesn’t matter if the images are perfect or the subject matter is interesting, the process and the interaction between people is the part that’s most important to me now. I think I may be maturing in a new way - I feel less and less anxiety about the work and more and more desire to connect with the people. When was the last time you had the chance to be involved with a group of people sharing experiences, ideas, art, food, coffee and culture? I’m very blessed!

Thank you Summer and Jean for helping make these things possible. Summer assisted me Saturday and shot most of these images.

The Holland “Collodionista Group” - 8×10 BGA

Demo portrait of Francie - 4×5 BGA

Always talking about Collodion - and all things Collodion.

Take a lot of notes, they’ll help you when you get home.

My workshops are “touch and feel” - pick it up, get your hands on it.

Getting started - everyone made a couple of images.

Black gloves and cyanide.

A few plates of the works they made during the workshop:

The mistakes can be very interesting and beautiful too.

Varnishing an image.

All setup to open “the show” Friday night.

The facility was very nice, this is a bar/break room/gallery.

Draining varnish from an image.

Some photographs from Ruud, a workshop student.

Another one from Ruud; examining a plate.

And one more from Ruud; a student sitting for a portrait.

This was the view from our room. The hotel we stayed in was amazing! It was in a little village called, Boerdonk, The Netherlands. The owners were very friendly and had a wonderful little dog called Lennon, as in John Lennon.