Twelve lucky people will have the rare chance to create linoleum prints under the guidance of Windsor printmaker Linda Fellows, who taught printmaking, painting and art history at Loomis Chaffee school for many years and whose work has been exhibited at such venues as the Windsor Historical Society’s Windsor Artists: Then and Now exhibition, the Corcoran School of Art, The Hartford Art School and Skidmore College.  This workshop is limited adults and children aged 10 and up, because the relief printing process involves using a knife to cut an image from a linoleum block, from which multiple copies may be printed using rollers and ink.  The cost is $10 for Windsor Historical Society members, $15 for non-members.  Participants are asked to wear old clothes and bring a roll of paper towels for clean-up.

Relief printing, developed around 1400, coincided with the development of paper making.  These two inventions revolutionized the spread of knowledge and of art.  Diagrams for new inventions and machines could now be combined with printed explanation and shared from expert to expert.  Maps fostered geographic explorations.  Medical advances were encouraged by widely disseminated prints of medicinal plants.  And printed art works served a broader range of patrons, no longer just the wealthy.

Linda Fellows, who currently teaches English and English as a second language at Goodwin College has always used art and a communications tool and means of expression.  She loves printmaking as a medium because it allows her to experiment with texture, and because there is always an element of surprise when the finished work is seen for the first time.  Participants need not have had prior experience.  They should come prepared to play, to be spontaneous, and enjoy the process of creating a print.

This program is part of a series of public programs associated with the Society’s fall/winter exhibition Windsor Artists: Then and Now, sponsored by an anonymous donor, Rabbett Insurance Agency, the Town of Windsor through its Arts and Culture granting program, and Windsor Federal Savings.   The Windsor Artists:  Then and Now exhibition will be open to the public before the program.