Yesterday I delivered a piece of work that has been selected for the National Original Print Exhibition, to be held at the Bankside Gallery.
Stone Calligraphy II is one of a pair of large plates (58 x 20cm) created by layers of hard ground and spit-biting where strong acid is painted across the plate with a feather. This creates a more painterly, but unpredictable, effect as the acid etches through the aquatint. It was a difficult piece to make – inking up a large plate takes longer and handling large sheets of wet paper takes some practice. It was an experimental technique for me and working over the plate at each stage was difficult to keep the sense of spontaneity I wanted. The large image below shows the stages and techniques that went into creating the plates.
I started noticing stonemasons marks scraped into the old granite kerbstones. Originally there to ensure payment, these individual marks for each craftsman lie under our feet but are gradually being removed as stones are replaced with clean cut new granite. Similar marks are found in ancient Minoan pottery although there is no other record of the original makers and I wanted to record and react to this in some way.
It will be great to see this hanging alongside other people’s work so if you have time over the next few weeks, do go in and take a look.
