San Severa’s Pinwheels

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from photo

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to copperplate, deep etched

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to print

Recently I was rummaging through some of my old etched copperplates and came across this old favourite (centre image). That sent me looking for the few remaining prints that I still have from the edition. I had neglected to document it in my book as it was one of those small prints I would very occasionally make for print sales and for gifts so I had to search in old sketchbooks to recall when I’d made these. It was in the late 90’s during the period I was working on the Paths series.

This sent me on another path to the photo album of our trip to Italy in the fall of 1993 to find the original photo from which the image was created. It was taken on the grounds of an interesting and inspiring Etruscan castle we came across quite serendipitously, San Severa on the west coast north of Rome.

So, I thought some of my curious dear readers might enjoy seeing how a photograph ended up as an etching. If you are interested in a bit more technical information on the process of transferring the image to the plate, please visit this note. When the plate was ready, I inked it in the intaglio and relief method. The dark red-brown ink was rubbed into the deeply etched areas and top face or relief was wiped clean. Then with a hard roller the blue-green colour was rolled on the relief areas. Finally it was hand printed on an etching press onto paper.

Thoughts on PATHS

Notes from my sketchbook, January 27th, 2000:
— the places one walks, the surface under one’s feet
— the journeys one makes, physically and mentally and artistically
— the explorations into unknown territory… as in walking on new ground, new places…learning new ways of working ie. computer technology and how to apply it to the printmaking studio…new media …web art…
— where do these “paths” lead to?… “heaven”, some other “state”…..?
— connections to previous work, such as use of images of Hornby’s rocks also relate to “Paths” theme

The Paths series of prints (1998 – 2000) began with experiments in totally new techniques for me and the studio: digitizing images and using photopolymer emulsion*.

*Technical notes on photopolymer intaglio:
See Tools. Simply put, a photo sensitive polymer emulsion is applied to a metal plate (I usually use copper), the inkjet film positive is placed on top, and exposed to a very bright light. The first emulsion that I used was ImagOn, which is thick and takes on etching-like depressions on the film that hold the printing ink, so no etching is necessary. I prefer etching, so later started using a thinner emulsion Z-Acryl that allowed for this. Of course, the printing process then follows in creating an edition of prints.

Read more about printmaking at What is a print? and more on prints.

Paths II

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Paths II
photopolymer intaglio
75 x 56 cm.

Paths III

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Paths III
Photopolymer intaglio
76 x 56 cm.

Paths IV

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Paths IV
Photopolymer intaglio
40.5 x 51 cm.

Paths XI

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Paths XI
Photopolymer intaglio
76 x 57 cm.

Paths at Dollar Mill

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Paths at Dollar Mill
Triptych: Paths VII, Paths VIII, Paths IX (left to right)
Photopolymer intaglio
35.5 x 28 cm each

Paths V Revisited

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Paths V Revisited
Etching
76 x 56 cm.

Paths V

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Paths V
Photopolymer intaglio
76 x 56 cm.

Paths VI

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Paths VI
photopolymer intaglio
56 x 76 cm.