The Hand-Coated Image: Cyanotype Foundations

In this hands-on workshop, learn how to create cyanotype prints with darker blues and deeper tonal range using modern printing processes.

Participants will be guided through the experience of combining contemporary image-making with one of the earliest photographic printing processes. Cyanotype is a non-silver process that can be combined or used independently to create distinctive Blue-toned imagery on natural materials such as silk or art papers. This hands-on workshop with artist Sally Ayre covers proper coating, exposing and developing techniques for Cyanotype.

Participants must bring their own black and white digital negatives (maximum size 8x10"). If you need to print digital negatives, Gallery 44 can provide this service only for the purposes of this workshop. You can print digital negatives for $10/square foot. Please inquire about this service upon registration. You must submit your files at least two weeks before to the workshop in order to have them for the session.

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The Hand-Coated Image

This three-part workshop series offers an in-depth exploration of hand-coated photographic printing processes, tracing the enduring relevance of 19th-century techniques within contemporary image-making. Through focused, hands-on sessions led by three artists working deeply with historical processes, participants will engage with palladium, cyanotype, and Van Dyke Brown printing as both technical practices and expressive visual languages.

Across the series, participants will work directly with light-sensitive chemistry, paper, and negatives, gaining insight into how material choices, exposure, and process shape tone, depth, and surface. Each workshop emphasizes a distinct approach to hand-made photographic printing, from the luminous tonal range of palladium, to the rich blues of cyanotype, to the warm, earthy hues of Van Dyke Brown, inviting participants to consider how historical methods continue to offer expansive creative possibilities today.

Together, the workshops encourage sustained experimentation, material understanding, and a slower, more intentional relationship to photographic printing, supporting participants in building both technical confidence and a deeper connection to process-driven image-making.

Course fee: $500 (Members) / $575 (Non Members)
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Bio

Sally Ayre is a photo-based artist working in print and historical photographic processes. She was born in Newfoundland and is currently living in Toronto. Walking is one of her passions, an activity she enjoys and where her thoughts can flow at liberty in many directions. The exploration of parks, ravines and waterways in and around Toronto has given Sally a rich context where many of her art projects have been sparked and fostered. During her walks she has collected hundreds of natural specimens to be scanned and catalogued into her image bank where she draws from to create work.

Image Credit: Sally Ayre, Beach Grass (detail), 5 × 7 in., cyanotype on handmade Japanese paper, 2025.

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