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I
fell in love with etching at a weekend course with Bron Bradshaw
at the Dove Studios near Glastonbury in Somerset in 1999. I
went back there the following year and also spent a week at
the Porthmeor Workshops in St Ives with artist-printmaker Rachael
Kantaris. I have been attending regular etching sessions at
the Dove since 2000 and set up my own etching studio in 2001. |
My
prints are semi-abstract and they are mainly inspired by landscapes
in the South West of England and the South West of France.
I am
drawn to the man-made patterns of marks and shapes in a landscape
and fascinated by the process of re-creating simplified, more abstract
versions of my sketches on metal plates by making lines and textures.
My favourite etching process is aquatint which produces areas of
soft dappled texture of great richness and which can “hold”
a variety of strong, bold colours when printed.
The
etching process is incredibly absorbing. However, sometimes images
get “stuck” somewhere between the plate and the print
so I’m often fighting with elements of the printmaking process.
How will the plate behave in the acid? Will the aquatint be rich
enough to give me the right textures and colours? Will my marks
survive the etching process? Which colours should I use, and how
will they work together in a print?
But
I do get a tremendous buzz when a difficult duck-like plate turns
into a glorious swan of a print.
Ros
Marchant |
