Flora in focus: Botanical printmaking course
About
This course has been rescheduled to begin starting in January. For more information, please see the rescheduled event page here.
Join designer and artist Bethan Durie for a hands-on printmaking course exploring botanical forms through a range of traditional and experimental techniques. Over three weeks, you’ll draw inspiration from paintings in the Gallery and real natural specimens to create a rich series of original, one-off prints.
You’ll explore line, texture and colour using painterly monotypes, layered Gelli prints, and intaglio techniques, all while developing your own visual language through drawing and mark-making. Whether you're new to print or looking to deepen your skills, this course offers a creative and supportive space to explore, experiment and respond to nature in ink.
All materials are provided, and your prints and drawings are yours to take home. Handouts with extra resources will be provided in advance of the sessions.
The course begins with an introduction to monotype printmaking, a spontaneous and painterly technique that blends elements of drawing and painting. We’ll spend time sketching directly from nature and artworks in our collection, focusing on Impressionist and still-life paintings as sources of inspiration.
Back in the studio, we’ll continue working from fresh flowers and plant forms arranged into still-life compositions to create your own single-colour monoprints.
In the second week, we’ll shift focus to Gelli plate printing - an accessible and versatile method that allows for layering textures and colours. Building on drawings and imagery developed in week one, we’ll experiment with stencils, masks and direct printing techniques to create more complex compositions. You'll be encouraged to work in series, exploring variations in colour, form, and arrangement, and discovering how each layer adds depth and visual interest to the final print.
The final week introduces intaglio printmaking through dry point etching, a process that adds rich, detailed linework to your prints. You’ll experiment with this technique on its own and have the option to revisit and add further layers to prints made in previous sessions.
This week offers a chance to combine everything you’ve explored - drawing, colour, texture and layering to create a cohesive set of botanical prints. By the end of the session, you’ll have a small collection of original prints that reflect your personal response to natural forms and the artworks that inspired them.
Your tutor
Bethan Durie is one of our Gallery Educators. After completing an MA at the Royal College of Art in Visual Communication, she went on to work in the learning departments of the Victoria & Albert Museum, Garden Museum, and Southbank Centre. Her specialisms include design, contemporary illustration, and printmaking.