Northern Print’s Collaborative Collagraph Project

Northern Print’s Collaborative Collagraph Project was set up in 2020 to bring printmaker’s and artists together during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.

The project encouraged their studio members to continue making prints and learn new skills. Members decided to recreate a well-known artwork using the medium of printmaking. Communicating via email and Zoom, together they chose ‘Market Scene Northern Town’, a painting by LS Lowry. It reminded them of being in a busy place together while they were all isolated at home.

Collagraph is a simple printmaking process that builds texture on a plate which is inked up and printed using a press. Northern Print chose to use this process so that participants could work at home using household materials such as glue, string and sandpaper

The Lowry image was enlarged and divided into 32 rectangles, at least one for each participant, which could be depicted in collagraph reflecting each artist‘s individual style. As the artists worked alone without seeing each other’s plates they had no idea how the final piece would look.

Once the studio re-opened, they brought the individual plates together and printed them as one large image, recreating Lowry’s painting and reconnecting everyone once again.