Distant Shores

 

Etching provides an ideal medium with which to portray what are largely monochrome landscapes. The traditional technique of sugar-lift aquatint allows the image to be built up through layers of tightly-controlled drawing, and more abstract, semi-random marks, that mimic the natural processes that texture the landscape. While working on the etchings there is a constant tension between my natural tendency towards realism and finely rendered detail and a desire to simplify and abstract the image to achieve a looser rendering that maintains the energy of the original sketches made in the field.

 

All the works here are etchings. The images are built up in many layers, acid etched onto copper plates, and hand printed with oil-based inks onto handmade papers.