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Celebrating Our Printing Journey: 2025 Highlights

Happy Solstice! We wrapped up 2025 in style with the last of our community workshops at the studio on December 13. It was a grand event full of laughter and joy. We saw repeat faces and many new ones. It was an afternoon of printing rainbow rolled snowflakes, creating Plasticine stamps, and printing golden wishes for 2026 with metal type on a vintage CP Pilot press.

We began hosting free public workshops in different rural communities in July. We hadn’t expected so many folks would get involved. We are thrilled seeing your creativity and passion for printmaking. Thank you everyone for sharing your time, and interest.

We are grateful to Arts Nova Scotia for supporting our pilot project, Living Histories, Storied Places, through its Artists in Communities grant. We are particularly grateful to the EGPS Board and members. They went above and beyond as the project organizers and instructors.

Now in the duller, colder days of winter, EGPS will take a short break from workshops. There will be no open studio days. This allows members to have personal work time in the studio or just recharge.

The studio continues to be open for members and welcomes new members for 2026. If you caught the printmaking bug, and you wish to take up the roller, get in touch about the various levels of membership offered. You can also visit the Membership page on our website for details.

Our final Free Printmaking event in December!

Our final workshop in a series of Living Histories, Storied Places workshops in different communities throughout the area is coming back home to the EGPS studio, 240 St George Str, Annapolis Royal on Dec. 13, 1-4pm. We have been warmly welcomed into public spaces from Lawrencetown, Middleton, Bridgetown, Annapolis Royal and Bear River over the past five months. It has been such an honour to connect and learn with so many people through the art of printmaking.

Our final event is a workshop and celebration of the joy of sharing in an afternoon of printing snowflakes, using the letterpress and stamping with plasticine. This is also a good time to just hang out with members, ask questions about printmaking projects you are working on, where to begin your printmaking journey or how to become involved with Elephant Grass Printers in 2026. Join us for relaxed companionship over goodies and printing. There are always goodies at our Open Houses!

Our series of free community workshops, Living Histories, Storied Places, have been possible with an Artists in Community grant from Arts Nova Scotia.

Simply Printmaking – A Free Workshop

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Another Free Printmaking Workshop

Saturday, September 27, 10amto 1pm

Bridgetown & Area Public Library

38 Queen Street, Bridgetown, NS

Join Elephant Grass Printmakers, for 3 hours of printmaking demonstrations and activities led by artists  Katie Prescott and Lorna Mulligan. Express yourself creating your own small prints. All materials are supplied, along with encouragement, guidance and a great deal of laughter.

Everyone is welcome. 

Through our Living Histories & Storied Places project, EGPS is finding ways for members of diverse communities to come together, share experiences, and shape them into art by offering free workshops and building new connections. Living Histories & Storied Places is supported by Arts Nova Scotia’s Artists in Communities program.

Make the Bed Raffle and August Open House

We have been out of the studio lately, hosting workshops in the surrounding communities, but we know folks have been dropping by and are disappointed no one is in. Because we miss seeing visitors, we’ve decided to host a Summer Open House at EGPS studio on Saturday, August 9, from 11am to 2pm. While you are having fun at the hands-on demonstrations, don’t miss your chance to buy your tickets to enter our 2025 Make the Bed Raffle for one of 6 outstanding prizes generously donated by local artists.

The studio is located at 240 St. George Street, 2nd floor, Annapolis Royal.

Raffle Tickets are $5 ea or 3 for $10. Tickets can be purchased at EGPS studio or directly from EGPS members. You can also buy tickets at The Red Onion Market, 253 St George Street, just across the street. Sorry, no direct online sales, but contact us if you want tickets and cannot buy in person.

Funds raised will help us make upgrades to studio equipment, including replacing the Ettan press bed. A new bed will bring the press back to nearly original condition, allowing printmakers at EGPS studio to create high-quality prints for many years to come.

The raffle draw will take place on October 19, at the opening of “Freshly Pressed” our members’ exhibition at the Flora Hall Gallery, King’s Theatre, Annapolis Royal. Shipping of the prize at the winners’ expense. License: AGD-355773-25

The Prizes: (click on image to see details.)

Wayne Boucher, The Red Pony Stuck, painting and collage, 7.5 x 12” $500 value. Who wouldn’t want to win an original Wayne Boucher creation from his recent Red Pony series?!

Marianne Brown pendant with handmade silk cord (adjustable) and tassel, agate, and Japanese glass beads. $175 value. Absolutely beautiful!

Deb Kuzyk’s Bluebird Ginger Jar, 2025, 9” h x 6” diam. Stoneware is so very elegant, with its wraparound bird imagery, and also very useful! $450 value

An unforgettable outing for two at Julie Rosall’s studio in Annapolis Valley. First Impressions: Printmaking with Natural Materials, Two tickets for this FoodArtNature experience. $158 value

Julie Rosvall’s hand-knit lace scarf is also hand-dyed! This wool, silk, and mohair blend fashion item is so soft, you won’t want to be without it. $140 value

5 Birds, engraving on lexan, artist’s proof, 5.5 x 9.5” $400 value. An original etching from the imagination of David Silverberg, one of Maritime’s master printmakers and artists. In his print, narrative realism is countered by an incredible fantasy. This is a rare opportunity for the serious collector of fine art prints.

Wayne Boucher
Marianne Brown
Deb Kuzyk
Julie Rosvall
Julie Rosvall

Elephant Grass Printmkers Pride!

To celebrate, honour, and respect 2SLGBTQI+ people and families in the Annapolis area, EGPS members are hosting hands-on printing fun for everyone in two locations on Saturday, July 5.

Visit our table at the Annapolis Royal Farmers and Traders Market, 9am-1pm, or come by the studio at 240 St. George Street, 2nd floor, in the afternoon. Watch for the sandwich board outside our building for studio hours.

All are welcome!

Hands-On Printmaking Experience: May 17 at EGPS

The 2025 Saturday Open House season has begun! Join your EGPS printmakers for a day of inky fun and hands on demos on Saturday May 17, 11am -2pm at our studio, 240 St. George Str., 2nd floor, Annapolis Royal.

Sheri Jean Hancock will be showing the magical effects of a rainbow roll on a relief print. Or print your own mini letterpress takeaway plus on one of our letterpresses.

Bonnie Baker of Bonnie Baker Studio will be demonstrating how to do polaroid lifts in her adjourning studio.

Are you thinking about a printmaking activity or a project in the works in your future? You are welcome to come by, check out the different ways you can print at the studio or be involved as a member or just hang out for the conversation. So why not drop in after your market shopping and play with us?

Boots on the Ground

Rainbow roll with multiple colours on the same roller.

PAINT, PLAY, PRINT: an interpretation of Nature through simple printmaking workshop.

Starting in February 2025, EGPS will be launching our 2025 workshops in four Thursday afternoons at the studio with Lorna Mulligan, exploring Nature with simple printmaking techniques.

Ease into printmaking through hands-on creative play and spend four afternoons with Lorna Mulligan. We’ll take a painterly, mixed-media approach which will involve lots of fun experimentation with simple printmaking ideas including monoprint and relief printing, letterpress, collage, embossing and ink marbling. The theme is: your interpretation of NATURE. You’ll learn a bit about composition and colour harmonies along the way, as we combine and layer our printed papers full of beautiful colour, textures and imagery.

Most material is supplied! Students are encouraged to bring some of their own papers to print upon, including found papers. Bring pencils, ruler, eraser, scissors and glue stick. EGPS will supply the printing ink, plates and the fine art papers for printing.

Lorna Mulligan is an artist, calligrapher and teacher who has recently moved to Nova Scotia from Montreal. She studied at the University of British Columbia and at the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts. Her watercolours, artist’s books and mixed media artworks have been exhibited across Canada, in the US, and in Europe. She has been teaching art for over twenty-five years.

THURSDAYS, 12:30 – 2:30pm, FEB 13, 20, 27 and MARCH 6

$140 (members)* 165 (non-members) Suitable for 15yrs above. Why not renew your Membership or become an Associate Member now ($50) and get the discount?

Registration and payment can be made via e-transfer to elephantgrassprint@gmail.com, or by cash or cheque.

 Elephant Grass Printmaking Studio , 240 St. George Street, 2nd floor, Annapolis Royal, NS


PAINT, PLAY, PRINT!  Weekly Schedule

Wk 1 – Black ink, with brush and brayer, also the start of creating stamps and relief plates

Wk 2 – Printing on large papers, plus metallic ink on black paper, colored ink exploration

Wk 3 – Monoprinting various ways, some embossing and start of Tetrapak plate drawings

Wk 4 – Printing Tetrapak prints, Letterpress words or phrases, assemble artwork into folder

Worldwide Print Day in May Celebration!

May 4, 2024 is a day where Printmakers all over the world celebrate the fine art of printmaking and letterpress through group or individual print related activities which we then share on our social media.

At our monthly Print Circle, EGPS members will be joining in with demos, chat and posting from 1-4pm. What is a Print Circle? PC’s are casual gatherings of EGPS members, friend and anyone interested in sharing resources, and information about fine art printmaking and letterpress, held once a month at EGPS studio, 240 St George Str, 2nd floor, Annapolis Royal. 

There is no agenda or scheduled program except it is a time to come together, show each other what we are creating, whether it is work in progess or finished prints, ask questions or get inspired talking shop

Everyone is welcome from the experienced to the aspiring novice. If you love the smell of ink and don’t mind getting a little messy, you may be a budding printmaker. Why not come by and check us out?