First Fridays Winnipeg

Miriam Rudolph.

First Fridays Winnipeg.

Double-Plate Colour Etching.

22 x 22 cm. 2014.

First Fridays Winnipeg commissioned me to do a small etching a while back as a fundraiser piece. When I still had my studio in Winnipeg's exchange district, I always participated in the First Fridays event, where all studio artists and galleries open their doors to the public on the first Friday of each month. For me this was a wonderful way to show my work and talk about my work in a casual manner to people interested in art. It's a great and fun event! Well, I chose a Friday night in Winnipeg as my motif for this piece. In fact, the building in the foreground on the right is the Silpit Building where I used to have my studio, with all the illuminated windows and artists either working or showing their work. Take a peek for yourself through the windows. Front left, set back a little, is the Merchants Building and behind it you can see the upper part of the gorgeous Electric Railway Chambers on Notre Dame. 

For this image I heavily borrowed composition and colours from an early piece of British printmaker Brenda Hartill, but I think I succeeded in making it my own by changing the format, using specific Winnipeg buildings and my own little vignettes behind the windows. I came across Brenda's work several years ago and was quite surprised how many similarities I found in our work (her London etchings at least). I greatly admire her prints!

My little print will be available soon through First Fridays in Winnipeg.