Roll with it Show and Artist Talk at the Huntsville Public Library

Roll with it Show at the Huntsville Public Library: Until February 2, 2026

This is the second show at the Huntsville Public Library for the Muskoka Printmaker Collective. Originally a group of four, the collective has expanded to have ten members participating. Most of the printmakers in the show are relief printers, either woodcut or linocut. When the block is carved, the areas that are carved away become the white space, and the remaining surface is the image. For this type of printing, the ink is rolled directly onto the carved block to transfer the image to paper, which relates to the title, Roll with it.

Muskoka's landscapes attract artists from all over, including scenic lakes, forests, and rock faces that provide endless inspiration. The prints in this exhibition are a reflection of the beauty and vibrant colours of the area. Many of them are scenic views and landmarks, while others are inspired by wildlife and personal photos. Whether they are abstract or figurative, colour or black and white, each of these prints are as unique as the artists themselves.

One thing that each print has in common is the artist's hand being central to the processes necessary to make them. At our Artist Talk on January 12, three of the members of the Muskoka Printmaker Collective spoke about their processes. You can read about that event below.

List of Artists in the Roll with it Show

Elise Muller

Christina MacBean

Dawn Huddlestone

Karen Gray

Dana Aubrey

Christa Boothby-Raisbeck

Sasha Rae Pringle

Andrea McCallum

Pat Whittle

Paul Ferris

All of the members of the Muskoka Printmaker Collective are living and working in Muskoka. Many of the artists work in other mediums such as painting, ceramics, sculpture, jewellery, and photography. You can learn more about the artists in our About section using the link below.

Artist Bios

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Artist Talk on January 12, 2026 at the Huntsville Public Library

Elise Muller opened the Artist Talk by sharing the story of how the Muskoka Printmaker Collective was founded in 2024. She gave the group an overview of how the collective uses the lawn roller to print large woodblocks like they did at Nuit Blanche North 2024. There were four original members, and the group has grown to ten at the time of our Huntsville Public Library show, "Roll with it" that is up until February 2, 2026. Three of the artists from the exhibition participated in this talk - Elise Muller, Andrea McCallum and Dana Aubrey.

The first printmaking topic that Elise Muller covered was distinguishing between original prints like what our collective creates by hand, and reproduction prints that are printed digitally from photographs or scans of original works such as paintings. This is something that is important to know as an art collector or enthusiast. Another part of printmaking that enhances the value of each print is the process of editioning. Each plate or block can produce many copies of the image. The artist numbers each print based on how many will be made in a limited edition, and will include the title and their signature to authenticate the work. For example, if you see 3/12 in the corner of a print, that is the third of only twelve prints total. This guarantees the rareness of each one, but some artists will choose to use "OE" (open edition) if they plan to continue printing that block over time.

Shifting to her own practice, Elise talked about her woodblock relief printing process, and passed around a new block she finished carving. She is known for her relief prints featuring local landmarks, but some of her more recent woodblock prints, such as "Skiers" and "Out for a Spin" in this show were inspired from family photographs. Elise is one of the founding members of the Muskoka Printmaker Collective and has also used the lawn roller to print large scale wood blocks. As you may imagine, it takes a long time to apply ink to those blocks, and having that much pressure reduces the printing time significantly since they are too large for a press and would need to be printed by hand!

Elise usually draws directly onto the wood block (3/4" birch plywood block) but will occasionally use tracing paper to transfer images for her wood block and linocut prints. When asked about whether or not the wood splinters, she shared that that larger ones can be repaired, but she has a tendency to accept small mistakes and splinters as part of the process. Elise is a prolific artist who creates linocut prints as well, and is also an incredible stone sculptor and jewellery artist!

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Andrea McCallum started by talking about the difference between traditional battleship gray linoleum and soft carve rubber blocks. While the gray lino is more durable and can be used in a press, the soft lino is much easier to carve. The soft lino is helpful for anyone with mobility issues in their hands or wrists as it requires less pressure. Most of Andrea's linocuts are made with soft carve, but she often uses battleship gray for blind embossing.

Most of her talk was about intaglio printing. She began by describing how it is different than relief printing. While relief printing is an impression of the surface of a carved block, intaglio printing requires ink to sit in the lines and marks made in a metal or acrylic plate. In order for the image to transfer, damp paper is used, and the plate is run through a press with felt blankets between the paper and the roller. The pressure forces the fibers of the paper into the lines to pull out the ink and the plate is embossed into the paper through this process. While the original process of etching used acid to etch lines into the metal plate, Andrea works in an intaglio medium called drypoint, where the lines are drawn into the plate directly using a sharp instrument such as a drypoint needle or carbide scribe. She also shared the process of chine collé where delicate papers are dampened and adhered to the plate in the printing process.

Andrea's work focuses mainly on elements of nature and landscapes, though she has recently been doing commissions of pets and interior vignettes. In addition to drypoint and linocut, she also works in mezzotint and carborundum printing. Andrea appreciates the subtle imperfections and surprise results that are natural in printmaking, even seeking those out when collecting work. She will be teaching both linocut and drypoint at the Annex in Bracebridge later this winter or early spring.

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Dana Aubrey shared an engaging overview of letterpress printmaking with the group to close out the artist talk. She began by talking about the history of the medium, particularly from the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1450. Prior to this, only the wealthy could afford books and printed materials because they were hand written and produced individually. The first book created with a Gutenberg press was a Bible. Each letter is individually cast and pages are set line by line within a frame, known as a chase. This is a precise process that requires spacing blocks for perfect alignment. Though it is a time consuming process, this system has remained virtually unchanged since it was first invented!

One of the main things that Dana shared was that the printing press is what made reading and literature accessible to the public. Literacy is credited to this type of printing because it became ubiquitous. Scientific books and literature followed religious texts as printing became more widespread. The Halifax Gazette was the first publication in Canada to introduce letterpress in 1752. Dana mentioned that talking about this in a library was poignant since we now have books for every topic. As digital technology replaced these manual processes, many companies found their presses to be obsolete. They have found homes with smaller printers, especially as there has been a resurgence of interest in letterpress printing. Martha Stewart was a catalyst for this when she featured letterpress invitations, and there are now many artists creating all types of art with this medium.

Dana loves working with analog processes and working with her hands. Though it is tedious, she enjoys the puzzle aspect to setting type in a chase and finding the right pieces to solve it. Her artisanal letterpress work is a beautiful contemporary expression of a centuries old technology. The subtle qualities and textures of the wooden and metal letters shows the hand of the artist, which is part of the reason Dana is so passionate about letterpress printing!