HEATHER ASTON, Canadian printmaker/painter, works out of the Dundarave Print Workshop on Granville Island and her home studio in Vancouver, BC, Canada. She also teaches printmaking courses and workshops in local communities, studios, schools and other educational institutions.

Over the years as an artist, she has developed her own techniques to construct a richly coloured, seductive and energetic landscape for her monotypes, etchings and paintings. She focuses on the organic world of plants, revealing life’s passages as intimate and surprising.

Monotypes: The Painterly Print

Malaspina Printmakers Studio, Granville Island, BC

February 4 & 5, 2017

Saturday and Sunday, 10–5pm

Please contact MPS to register 604.688.1724

This printmaking process is one that involves transformation and discovery.

In this 2 day workshop students will explore making oil-based monotypes while learning other printmaking techniques such as liftprint and chine collé. Along with theses techniques, students will be introduced to different papers, materials, and the experience of working in a studio atmosphere. The 2 day format allows for students to focus in on this printmaking process all day, both days (10–5pm) while exploring colour, form, different techniques, and line. There will be demonstrations, discussion, and critiques throughout.

PURPLE TULIPS, 1/1
Oil Monotype, Chine Collé

Winter Group Exhibition

Dundarave Members

Dundarave Print Workshop + Gallery, 1555 Duranleau Street, Granville Island, Vancouver, BC

November 30, 2016 – January 3, 2017

Hours for December: 11–5pm every day (except Dec. 25 & 26)

A salon style exhibition of our artist’s original works framed and ready to be placed under the tree. Unframed works are available as well. Monotypes, Etchings, Relief Prints and more!

ROADSIDE BOUQUET, 1/1
Oil Monotype, Chine Collé

Waiting to Bloom/Waiting to Fly

McGill Library, 4595 Albert Street, Burnaby, BC

arranged through the Burnaby Art Gallery

November 15, 2016 – January 30, 2017

Waiting to Bloom/Waiting to Fly is a series of monotype prints about the existence and experience that being trapped in our surroundings leaves upon us.

INDOOR BLOOM – STAGE 2, 1/1
Oil Monotype, chine collé

WAITING TO HATCH
Monotype, relief print, hand colouring, chine collé

Bending Boundaries

Heather Aston, Carol McQuaid

Ferry Building Gallery, 1414 Argyle Street, West Vancouver, BC

October 18 – November 6, 2016

Opening Reception: Tuesday, October 18, 6–8pm

“Bending Boundaries” is about the cohesive connection between printmaking and painting. My background as a printmaker shows up in my paintings and I like that. The exhibition showcases two artists that connect to each other with shared art practices whether it be the one who paints and includes print or the one who prints and includes paint. It is here in the gallery that the observer is led to realize there are many overlaps of the imagination, of techniques and the collective life force that the two of us present. My monotypes have often been described as “painterly and gutsy”. I like to think that that quality overlaps into my paintings. I paint and draw with different implements besides the brush. I stamp, I layer, I collage, I add and I subtract. Hence: these mixed media paintings.

Celebrating the elemental connection between print
and paint

TRYING NOT TO PICK ROSES
Acrylic, photo transfer, collage on paper on wood panel

Places, Traces + Marks

Heather Aston, Sharole Brown,
Gail Fromson + Wendy Morosoff Smith

Dundarave Print Workshop + Gallery, 1640 Johnston Street, Granville Island, Vancouver, BC

September 12 – October 2, 2016

Opening Reception: Thursday September 15, 6–9pm

Artists strive to make sense of the world around them by making images that record and interpret their journeys of observation and experience. In this exhibition four artists working in the medium of printmaking explore the reciprocal relationship between the external; journey and place and the internal; memory and emotion.

Artist statement: Places, Traces + Marks
I have been confined to my home the last two summers while healing from two operations—the latest a hip replacement. As a result I chose to make prints for this show at home without access to a press. A birdcage became the main element of my sense of place. I carved it as a relief image and the objects trapped inside represent my confinement within the household. These are liftprint monotypes. I have hand coloured them, printed the birdcage in relief on top and then used chine colle as a last step in the process.

“Waiting to Root”
Monotype, relief print, hand colouring, chine collé

Monotypes: The Painterly Print

Dundarave Print Workshop + Gallery, 1640 Johnston Street, Granville Island, Vancouver, BC

October 25 – December 6, 2016

Tuesday evenings 7 to 10pm

$275 plus $8 for in class use of inks and glue

9 participants maximum

Please contact Dundarave Print Workshop to register

Phone: 604.689.1650

Email: info@dundaraveprintworkshop.com

The excitement of transformation and discovery is inherent in this printmaking media and is sure to inspire and fascinate participants. They will explore both watercolour and oil-based monotypes along with monotype techniques such as chine collé, liftprints and layering. Students are introduced to different papers, materials and the experience of working in a studio atmosphere. They receive individual attention regarding drawing, painting, and composition and learn to print using a manual press. The course will open new possibilities for expression. There is discussion and class critiques throughout. Suitable for any level and a good introduction to the Print Studio and Practice.

Monotypes: The Painterly Print

Malaspina Printmakers Studio, Granville Island, BC

January 6 – 27, 2014

Monday evenings 6 to 9pm

Please contact MPS to register 604.688.1724

This printmaking process is one that involves transformation and discovery.

In this 4 week course the students will explore making oil-based monotypes while learning other printmaking techniques such as liftprint and chine collé. Along with theses techniques, students will be introduced to different papers, materials, and the experience of working in a studio atmosphere. The course will open new possibilities for expression while exploring colour, form, different techniques, and line. There will be demonstrations, discussion, and critiques throughout.

$240 for members ($264 for nonmembers)

6 participants maximum

There is a creative spontaneity in the painterly process of making monotypes.

Preparing a monotype with
oil-based inks
Photo: Andrea Taylor

Shores Under the Sky

The University Women’s Club at Hycroft

1489 Mcrae Avenue, Vancouver, BC

January, 8 – 31, 2014

Opening reception: Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014 6:30–8pm

A two person exhibition with Rina Pita of monotypes and mixed media paintings of atomospheric landscapes of the BC Coast. Layers of time and history are found in these images. The ocean engulfs, covers over, then exposes the forces of life and our history with the West Coast.

Detail:
BETWEEN THE SHORES
Oil Monotype Chine Collé Diptych

Artists for Kids

North Vancouver School District

810 W 21st St, North Vancouver, BC

February 17, 24 and March 3, 2014

We are excited to announce an upcoming Enrichment Program with local artist Heather Aston. Select Grade Four students from across North Vancouver will attend a three-day pullout program with Heather and art specialist teacher Kory Bogen to investigate painting, printmaking, and mixed media art-making. It is sure to be an exciting and inspiring program! www.artists4kids.com

There is No Still Life
Heather Aston

A solo exhibition of new monotypes and etchings

March 5 – 30, 2014

Dundarave Print Gallery, Granville Island, Vancouver, BC

Opening reception: Thursday, March 6, 2014 6–8pm

Detail:
PARROTS, PENCILS AND THINGS THAT GROW TOGETHER – THE HARMONIOUS STILL LIFE
Oil Monotype Chine Collé Diptych

Monotype: The Painterly Print (PRNT w119)

Vancouver Island School of Art, Victoria, BC

March 29 + 30, 2014 10am – 5pm

Please contact VISA to register 250.380.3500

Discover the painterly qualities of monotype prints in this weekend workshop. The monotype, a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth surfaces such as Plexiglas, is a process that is inherently spontaneous and creative as end results are hard to plan and predict. The name “monotype” refers to the fact that a unique print is produced with each pass through the press. Using oil-based inks, as well as lift prints, stencils, found objects and chine collé techniques, you will progress through a series of steps that will open new possibilities for expression. You will receive individual attention regarding drawing, painting and composition, and learn to pull prints from the Plexiglas to paper using a manual press. Workshop will also include discussion of papers as well as group critiques.

Tuition: $200.00 (12 hrs)

Material Fee: $50 (all materials included)

BUTTERFLY AMARYLLIS
Oil Monotype Chine Collé

In Wait: a collaborative by 7 members of the full circle art collective

First Exhibition: February 15 – March 15, 2014

The Act Gallery, Maple Ridge, BC

Opening Reception: Saturday, February 15, 2014 2–4pm

September 2014

The Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, BC

The “In Wait” project is probably one of the most exciting projects that I have ever been involved in. Over 200 (12″ × 12″ × 1.625″) mixed media works have been produced collaboratively from September 2010 to August 2013 between 7 artists in the full circle art collective. Inspired by the story of Penelope in Homer’s Odyssey we asked ourselves “who are we when we wait?”

Mixed media works on paper mounted on cradle box and archivally varnished 12″ × 12″ × 1.625″

It is as if when we wait, we do not live in the present and the activities in waiting are disposable or perhaps a mere means to an end. My late Mother who, during her joyful and productive life, engaged in activities such as knitting, needle point, gardening, and an endless array of other passions, all to satisfy her energetic zest for life. As she slowly faded into the last few years of her life, some of these activities took on a different meaning.

My collaborative process through the “In Wait” project explores activities that once were a joy but that age has degraded into mere chores, but comfortable things to do while “In Wait” for the inevitable, which is often unmentionable to most of us.

Sewing, knitting playing solitaire, these activities are the themes that dominate my drawings as I interpret, weave and layer them into the communal works, reflecting on the complex nature of waiting.

The story: In Homer’s Odyssey, Penelope, wife of Odysseus, finds herself besieged by suitors during her husband’s long absence. In order to avoid making a decision regarding matrimony, she announces she must weave a shroud before she can wed again. Penelope weaves during the day and unravels her work during the night, thus never completing the shroud and allowing her to find a resolution in waiting.

The project is a contemplative response to our personal experiences and the shared communal psyche as we have examined an ordinary part of life: the ubiquitous act of waiting. We have worked on these images individually and collaboratively as the majority of these works have been passed on to others to complete. During the 3 years that we have been working on this project we have created approximately over 200 pieces!

The first exhibition of In Wait will open at the Maple Ridge Art Gallery, Maple Ridge, BC on Saturday, February 15, 2014 from 2–4pm.

Room magazine published an article on the project in their 2013 Summer issue. See Room for the article.