An Old Craft with a

Contemporary Vibe 

    

Hello, welcome to my site. I am delighted you have found me and I hope you enjoy looking at my work.

I make ETCHINGS, a technique that evolved from a means to decorate plate armour in the 14th century to an established art-form by the 16/17th centuries - scroll to the bottom of this page if you are interested in reading how I do it. I was introduced to this amazing medium at Art College as part of the Drawing & Painting course  – I took to it like the proverbial duck to water. Always more of a graphic artist, I am inspired by line and light, texture and shape rather than colour. Over the years colour has begun to creep in, but it’s not usually the primary inspiration.

I live in Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland and have done so for most of my life. It’s a beautiful city and endlessly inspiring. Much of what I do celebrates those parts of the city I know best. I also like making pictures of things that have caught my eye, putting them together as still-life arrangements. And then there are the landscapes and records of loved places across Scotland and the odd image from a trip abroad. All grist to my mill.

Since leaving college I have been a member of Edinburgh Printmakers which is where I make and print my work.

I have a fairly active Instagram account so do go there to see what I am doing at any given time.

WHAT IS AN
 
ETCHING?

 

Essentially an ETCHING is a hand-made print. First a metal sheet or PLATE, I use copper or zinc, is prepared and covered with a thin layer of an acid-resistant GROUND. The image is drawn into this ground using an ETCHING NEEDLE. When the drawing is finished the plate is put into an ACID BATH (actually we use Ferric Chloride these days, but you get the idea). The acid eats at the plate where it has been exposed by the drawn lines. The length of time the plate is in the acid determines the depth of the bitten line which in turn dictates how light or dark that line is. Once this part of the process is done the plate is cleaned of its 'ground' and is ready to be printed from. This is done by INKING-UP the plate, pushing ink into the lines and then wiping the surface clean. Next, the plate is placed on the bed of a press, a sheet of previously prepared dampened paper is placed on top, then blankets to protect the roller are added. The whole lot is rolled through the press which exerts the massive pressure which pushes the paper into the lines of the plate, thus creating that very distinctive raised 'INTAGLIO' line. Once through, the blankets are removed, the paper peeled off and you have your etching. To make another copy, the plate has to be inked up again and the whole process repeated with another sheet of paper. It is traditional to limit the EDITION, so each print is numbered with the title (bottom left side, under the image) and signed by the artist (bottom right side).

(Photo credit: Edinburgh Printmakers )