Printing in Braidwood

Stephen Best in his Braidwood studio

Who wouldn’t jump at the chance of a couple of days in a pretty country town, known for its art galleries and sumptuous bakery? When I decided Stephen Best of Macquarie Editions was the person to print Dumb-founded, my upcoming show, Justin and I packed the car in under five minutes and scooted the 100-kilometres to visit him in Braidwood.

Stephen has a gorgeous white-washed studio and an Epson Stylus Pro 7900, a large-format printer that prints up to 24-inches (on the shortest edge) and weighs more than me.

The experience was divine! Stephen’s approach blends excellent technical skills with close attention to what artists want. We printed on Canson Infinity Rag Photographique paper — a lovely fine art paper with the same quality as hot-pressed printing paper — using the latest UltraChrome HDR inks. The result is a series of prints that I can’t wait to hang on Tuesday.

To top off the experience, we had a pub dinner at the Royal Mail Hotel. I must confess that the barman-come-bouncer was rather menacing and the beer seemed a little watered down, but the meals were scrumptuous — at just $16, Justin’s t-bone steak was the size of an epic novel!

As you can see on the above invite, my show opens this Thursday at Photoaccess in Canberra, with drinks, canapés and cupcakes from 6pm. It runs until Sunday 10 May, concluding with an artist talk at 2pm. If you're in the area, please drop in; otherwise, stay tuned because I'll be creating an online gallery soon.