Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Etchings

As a sometimes artist, I am always envious of printmakers who do etchings. Are they etchers? Etchographers? Etchists? Anyway.
  1. They get to play with acid 
  2. As a result they have an emergency shower on hand in their studio - who doesn't want that?
  3. Etchings always look great. They have that spotty acid-eaten texture that other artists have to work so hard to achieve. And it's pretty obvious that the etchists know it. How often have you seen a great looking etching that has four intentional loopy lines and just a whole lot of terrific-looking mess? Heaps, that's how often.
I grabbed a book of Fred Williams prints and drawings at the library on Saturday. It is a masterpiece of the curator's profession - e.g. Landscape with Goose;

"Landscape with goose (1973)
Drypoint, roulette, electric hand engraving tool and burnisher, printed in black ink on Lavis Montgolfier St Marcel Les Annonay paper, edition 2/20"



Oh come on. The paper cannot really be called that. Really? REALLY?

5 comments:

Nobody said...

Just to be precise here Chris-Man. If it's a drypoint etching, there hasn't been any acid involved.

Except for the guy that named that paper!

Chris Rees said...

I think he named the paper after a pedigree bulldog.

Thanks for calling me out publicly as a printmaking bluffer! Next you'll be revealing I actually know nothing about netball.

IT IS ALLY said...

More importantly, I can't see the goose. Suggest etching be renamed 'Landscape With Goose (Which Is Hiding Right Now)'

Chris Rees said...

My mistake, the actual title is Landscape Without Goose #377.

Wendy said...

My first thought was that it was called "Landscape with Tsunami-inducing Faultline". I think it's very sinister. (Then again, my family are still suffering from a little bit of post-tornado stress disorder from the last weather disaster we had, so maybe I'm projecting.)