Herb Fair | Julia Whitney Barnes Workshop

Introduction to Cyanotype Printing Technique

We are honored to welcome Julia Whitney Barnes to the Herb Fair & Market again this year. In addition to exhibiting her work at the Rosen House during the Fair, she will be selling her signed prints, signing her book, “Planting Utopia”, and offering an exciting workshop.

The workshop will start with the basics of how to make a cyanotype print by mixing chemistry, coating paper and/or fabric, and developing the print using the sun. We will cover how to print using fresh and pressed plants, printing with three-dimensional objects (string, plastic bags, glass jars, jewelry, etc.), printing with paper cutouts, and how to create and print with photographic negatives. This medium is infinite in ways to combine techniques during the creation of the print and after it has been printed. The workshop does not require any previous experience in cyanotype. 

Artist and educator Julia Whitney Barnes approaches cyanotype (sometimes considered a printmaking technique, sometimes a photographic technique) as someone painting with light. She is interested in creating objects that feel both beautiful and mysterious. Each of her cyanotype paintings recalls something familiar yet slightly outside of time. Given that sunlight starts the exposure process with cyanotype chemistry, she carefully arranges elaborate compositions at night and utilizes long exposures under natural or UV light to create the final prints. She manipulates physical impressions of plants grown in her Hudson Valley garden and other nearby areas, along with intricate negatives that are created as digital renderings or photographs printed in reverse onto transparencies.

Please note: The cost of the workshop includes all essential materials and the $10 admission fee to the Herb Fair & Market. Therefore, if you purchase a workshop ticket, there is no need to buy a separate admission ticket. Very limited spaces available, so sign up early!

Julia Whitney Barnes is an artist living in the Hudson Valley who works in a variety of media from cyanotypes, watercolor, oil paintings, ceramic sculptures, murals, and site-specific installations. She has exhibited widely in the United States and internationally. She was awarded fellowships from New York State Council Arts, Arts Mid-Hudson, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Abbey Memorial Fund for Mural Painting/National Academy of Fine Arts, and the Gowanus Public Art Initiative, among others.

Born in Newbury, VT, Julia Whitney Barnes spent two decades in Brooklyn, before moving to Poughkeepsie, NY in 2015. She received her BFA from Parsons School of Design and her MFA from Hunter College. Whitney Barnes has created site-specific installations at the Albany International Airport/Shaker Heritage Society, Albany, NY; Brookfield Place/Winter Garden, New York, NY; Arts Brookfield, Brooklyn, NY, the Wilderstein Sculpture Biennial, Rhinebeck, NY; The Trolley Barn/Fall K*ll Creative Works, Poughkeepsie, NY; GlenLily Grounds, Newburgh, NY; ArtsWestchester, White Plains, NY; Gowanus Public Arts Initiative, Brooklyn, NY; Space All Over/Fjellerup Bund i Bund & Grund, Fjellerup, Denmark; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council/Sirovitch Senior Center, New York, NY; Brooklyn School of Inquiry, Brooklyn, NY; New York City Department of Transportation, New York, NY; and Figment Sculpture Garden, Governors Island, NY and among other locations.