Winter (etching)

It doesn't pay to put your woollies away too early. We are back to winter this week. It was 9C this morning but felt like 0C because of the wind chill factor.

This is an etching I did in Dunedin where the bath was my refuge in winter. I added the colouring more recently.

Winter

Music, coffee, etchings, art

Coffee grinder with (Wagner) music

At Art School in 2008 I had a wonderful time in the print workshop. 'Print' as in etching, intaglio,aquatint, relief ... not print as in photocopying.

Before spending time in the print workshop I had thought that multiples of etchings were as easy to produce as photocopies, that one turned the handle several times and out would pop several etchings, all the same. Little did I know. (If you do see etchings all exactly the same, with multiple colours, then you are  looking at work of a print-master.)

I worked like a crazy and learned a great deal. One of the etchings I made was of a coffee grinder - with some of Wagner's music in the background (of course).

The other day I found the  coffee grinder cutout I worked from and was about to throw it away. Then I discovered it has a charm of its own.

Coffee, coffee, coffee.

As my print teacher Neil Emmerson told me, the product is sometimes an e-product - and that's fine!

Neil is celebrating 10 years at Dunedin Art School this month with an exhibition of work by teachers and students.

 

Collages for the Wagner Bicentenary

Richard Wagner was born in May 1813 and in honour of the bicentenary of his birth, many opera houses  including Opera Australia are preparing productions of his work.

Wagner: Collaged etching

I am celebrating as well and have just made series of Wagner collages using etchings. You can see the series here

Hamburg Etchings

Finally I have some Hamburg etchings on artsmitten.com


The Town Hall and Michel Church, Swans on the Alster in front of the Town Hall,


and springtime in the woods in Rissen.

Hamburg Rathaus

The Hamburg Rathaus (City Hall)is an imposing building with lots of windows and ornamentation and a green copper roof. There is a cafe right opposite with a wonderful view over the town square to the Rathaus. I sat on a high stool there looking out the window to draw this.

 

Then I thought it might look good as an etching as well, so I took a prepared zinc plate to the coffee shop and drew onto that.

 

After a first acid bath the initial etching looked like this.

then I worked on it some more and dunked it in the acid bath again to bring out the highlights.
More ink/watercolour sketches of Hamburg Rathaus.

Conducting the cranes.

This is one of two etchings I made after visiting the Hafenstadt and seeing all the cranes working on the Elbphilharmonie. Shortly before I had been to the opera with Simone Young conducting.

Both etchings are on my website.

Print press

This is the print press I am using. Goodness knows how long it has been standing in this room but I have become rather fond of it. When you work on a press like this one you don't need any other exercise machine.

Etchings: spring

This was the first etching I made when I started school here. It reflects the feeling I had wandering through the beech woods in April as the leaves opened.


Later I added an aquatint (the black) and watercolour (green).

Etching/aquatint

'Coffee pot'
This is an etching with aquatint. An etching is made by drawing on a metal plate - in this case, a zinc plate. Aquatints are nothing to do with aquarelle. Instead it is the process of applying a haze of dots to a metal surface and then dunking it in an acid bath. The acid eats away around the dots. The longer you leave it in the acid (with re-applications of the haze of dots)the deeper it eats into the metal and, when you ink the plate, the darker the image. (More at artsmitten.com)

Coffee pot prints

It took me a long time to warm to printing, but finally when I started experimenting with colour I got the bug. Our print course is finished and we had a free day today, but I spent the day (8.30 to 6pm)rolling the printing presses. These 2 etching/aquatint/stencils of coffee pots were the beginning of my colour experiments. Today's work sits under the presses at school. I shall be interested to have a look at it tomorrow when I have recovered from my marathon print day.