Annette Messitt

Block printing and linocuts

About the Artist: Annette Messitt has lived on Vashon Island since 2017. She has been drawing and painting as long as she can remember. While earning her master’s degree in architecture in the mid-nineties, Annette became an avid plein air watercolorist. She began printmaking in 2018, and it is now her primary medium. She focuses her work on the everyday objects around her and on the amazing wildlife of the Pacific Northwest. Annette prefers the reductive method of linocut. This process involves a finite number of color overprints made from a single piece of linoleum, with more of the linoleum being cut away for each overprinted color. At the end of this process, the linoleum is almost entirely cut away and no additional prints can be made. The result is a colorful limited series print.

Annette is currently a member of Quartermaster Press, a Vashon Island printmaking collective, and Swiftwater Gallery, a cooperative gallery. She also enjoys teaching classes because she believes that everyone has a printmaker inside them!

About the Studio: Annette founded the Old Dockton Press studio in 2021. It is adjacent to the Old Dockton Church, which was constructed in 1927 when Dockton was a bustling ship building community.

The Old Dockton Press is open several times a year for studio tours and art walks. It is also open by appointment. At the Old Dockton Press you’ll find framed originals on the studio walls and unframed originals to browse. You will also find hand printed cards and tags, fine art prints of original work, as well as art-adorned canvas bags. There is something for everyone and at every price range. While you are there, partake in Vashon’s only ART VENDING MACHINE. When is the last time that four little quarters bought you something that brings you JOY. I’ll bet it’s been too long.