Printmaking in the Bush
I recently had the pleasure of working on a collaborative printmaking project with two of West Australia's best known and respected artists - Jimmy Pike and Peter Skipper - within the Open Bite Print Workshop.The OBAPW was established in 1998 as an extension to the printmaking program at the West Australian School of Visual Art at Edith Cowan University in Perth. The program aims to provide practicing artists with access to the School's extensive print making facilities. This type of program affords the professional practitioner in other media an opportunity to learn and explore the disciplines and techniques involved in contemporary print making practice, or use the resources required to produce and publish their own work. It also offers enthusiasts the chance to work on campus alongside members of the School's Artist in Residence program.

The Commercial Connection
The notion of working with professional indigenous artists came about through a conversation I had with David Wroth, director of Desert Designs. This company has a long history in commercial fabric design with a strong reputation for working with artists from north and central Australia. We discussed the possibilities and potential of providing artists with access to the type of equipment not readily available in remote areas. We also discussed how this might, in some small way, influence the stylistic character of indigenous art in the region. We invited Daisy Napaltjarri from the Hass Bluff women's art community to work with us for one week to produce prints within a print room environment, her first access point to resources of this kind. The success of the trial lead to this more ambitious project with Jimmy and Peter.

Introduction to Printmaking for Established Artists
Jimmy, who is originally from Fitzroy Crossing, had just returned from the opening of his show at the Rebecca Hossack gallery in London and a brief trip to China and Namibia. Peter, Jimmy's uncle, who is best known for his paintings of the north west landscape, and Jimmy's wife Pat Lowe- who penned the well known story Jimmy and Pat Meet The Queen - were asked to collaborate on the project. We agreed a strategy of working with the artists within the print room for one week, introducing them to a particularly industrial approach to the medium which relied on traditional and contemporary print technology to reproduce their work. This would include the use of developmental equipment such as photographic or digital processes as well as utilising pressess to print the work.

A Free Ride on the Learning Curve
The second week was spent working in the landscape with the students at Leewana bush camp, under the type of conditions that Jimmy and Peter are used to, without the luxury of plant and equipment. This approach proved very successful for both the artists and students alike, providing a free ride on the learning curve for everyone involved in the project. The first studio week saw the artists generate an enormous body of work which included experiments in steel and zinc etching, stone lithography, relief printing and a day working in clay. The work ethic and commitment to the process was intense, Jimmy and Peter would produce an image swiftly and with a directness and beauty that had to be seen to be believed. It soon became apparent that for both artists that the similarities between the processes would act as a link rather than a barrier for their work, whether the technology was high or low.

While Jimmy's images concentrated on traditional figurative and narrative themes, Peter developed the patterns and structural elements that form the basis to his painting. The first week also concentrated on the monochromatic and graphic elements of both artists' work so that these could be extended at a later date into either designs for fabric, or colour prints on paper using screen technology. The week on camp with the students from the printmaking department saw a return to simplicity and provided the time and space to appreciate the particular skills that Jimmy and Peter have developed as a result of their culture. Their deep-seated love of the desert permeates their landscape paintings.

Collaborative Printmaking at Its Best
The artists would work all day on plates and lino blocks while slowly revealing the narrative stories that lay behind their images. The return to the studio saw the artists laying down a series of textures to be used at a later date within the screenprint process. The artists were quite happy for me to run a series of proofs with the raw material, and as an experienced printer make make both aesthetic and technical decisions about how the print might develop. It is refreshing to see that artists of this standing are excited about the idea of collaboration at all stages of the process. It was also interesting to see Peter choosing potential sequences from a colour swatch, favouring fluorescent yellows and bright cerise over ochres and primaries. The proofs are to be completed early in 1999 so that decisions can be made as to which images will be developed or editioned. The Open Bite studio is entering into an agreement with Desert Designs whereby they will act as printer and publisher for the work