Arist's Proof A/P

Published to accompany Graphic Studio Dublin’s exhibition Artist’s Proof

at Chester Beatty Library, 15th January – 19th April 2009

This exhibition is available as a touring show.

Contact [email protected]

Published by Graphic Studio Dublin

Copyright © 2008, Graphic Studio Dublin , Chester Beatty Library and the authors

ISBN...

Supported by the Arts Council

All prints © The Artist & Graphic Studio Dublin, 2008

Dimensions are in centimetres and refer to image size (h x w)

Papersize for all prints is 47 x 32 (h x w)

CBL images © Chester Beatty Library

Artist Drawing From a Model, Rembrant © Rembrandhuis, Amsterdam

Edited by Brian Lalor, Osgar O’Neill, Robert Russell, Jackie Ryan and Dr. Michael Ryan

Catalogue and Exhibition Design by Joe McCarthy

Exhibition Framed by Dalkey Arts Ltd.

Printed by Hudson Killeen Ltd.

Chester Beatty Library

Dublin Castle

Dublin 2

Ireland

Tel: +353 (0)1 407 0750

Fax: +353 (0)1 407 0760

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: www.cbl.ie

Graphic Studio Dublin

Distillery House

Distillery Court

537 North Circular Road

Dublin 1

Ireland

Tel: +353 (0)1 817 0942

Fax: +353 (0)1 817 0942


Web: www.graphicstudiodublin.com

Cover image

Spinning Wind (detail)

Takahiko Hayashi

Inside front

Surface

Stephen Lawlor

2

Contents Page

Foreword – Jackie Ryan, Chief Executive Officer, Graphic Studio Dublin v

and Dr. Michael Ryan, Director, Chester Beatty Library

Acknowledgements vii

Graphic Studio Dublin – Colm Toibin 1

Infernal and Other Methods – Brian Lalor 4

Chester Beatty Library Historical Note 10

Graphic Studio Dublin Historical Note 12

Limited Edition Boxed Set 14

Education Programme 14

List of Participating Artists 16

Catalogue 18

Artists’ Biographies 68

Glossary – Robert Russell, Studio Director, Graphic Studio Dublin 76

iii

and the group of engravers known as the ‘Little Masters’. Chester Beatty’s collection

grew to nearly 35,000 prints, approximately 5,000 of which are loose sheets and the

remainder mounted in albums. This figure does not include the hundreds of prints

that are found in the illustrated books or prints separately mounted in extra-illustrated

volumes.

Graphic Studio Dublin was established in 1960 by a group of artists who wanted

to create fine art prints in a tradition that mirrored the skills of their predecessors

worldwide, examples of which are evident throughout the Chester Beatty Library’s

collections. Their vision grew to form the largest collective fine art print studio in Ireland,

which now has 68 members, and occupies a stunning 7,000 square foot studio

premises at Distillery House, North Circular Road, Dublin 1, as well as exhibiting at its

central Dublin gallery, Graphic Studio Gallery in Temple Bar, Dublin 2.

No museum’s collection should be seen in isolation of the contemporary practices that

continue the traditions housed within its archives and permanent displays. The Chester

Beatty Library staff are acutely aware of this, and endeavour to push boundaries of

understanding about fine art printmaking. The previous two collaborations were about

asking the artist to respond to the collections within Chester Beatty Library, and this

third project pushes a step further. Instead of using the collection as inspiration, the

brief was to research, explore, illustrate and document the processes that are part of

the art of making a fine art print. Only then can some of the hidden processes that lie

within historic prints be uncovered, many of which stand in isolation as finished pieces

of art, without sketches, studies or proofs.

Late twentieth century art criticism looked at ideas behind the creation of art with

regard to the superiority of process versus product. In previous centuries, art historians

focused on the finality of a finished artwork, with scant regard to the creative process.

Drawings, studies and sketches were often lost or destroyed.

Foreword

Artist’s Proof is the third collaboration between

Graphic Studio Dublin and the Chester Beatty

Library, following the highly successful exhibitions

Holy Show (2002) and Gardens of Earthly Delight

(2005). The collaboration has been of great

benefit in linking the Chester Beatty Library’s

historic collections of prints (many of which were

at the heart of Sir Alfred Chester Beatty’s art

collection), to a thriving contemporary fine art

print facility, Graphic Studio Dublin. Sir Alfred

Chester Beatty was one of the earliest patrons of

Graphic Studio Dublin.

Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a print cabinet was an essential

element of a gentleman’s library. This usually consisted of portfolios of prints or print

albums arranged either by subject matter or, more often, by artist or engraver. The

European print collection formed by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty was in this tradition. He

started to collect prints around 1910 and he was particularly interested in the works of

northern European artists, especially the engravings and woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer

v

The world growth of media, new technology and the formulation of national and

international art collecting policies led to the wider documentation of the creative

process, in Ireland more specifically in the latter two decades of the twentieth century.

In extreme cases the finished artwork or ‘product’ became almost irrelevant – if the

process opened enough dialogue and pushed the boundaries of perceived artistic

practice.

The art of printmaking has straddled both these trends, holding faith in the creative

process in pursuit of the final print. Artist’s Proof is a brave illustration to the world,

that the process behind the fine art print is never easy and can often turn the creative

concept on its head. The pursuit of the finished print can unveil mysterious possibilities

for an artist open, creative and hardworking enough to take those steps.

This exhibition, co-produced by Graphic Studio Dublin and the Chester Beatty Library,

is an invitation to enter the magic that this process unfolds. Fifteen Graphic Studio

Dublin artists and nine invited artists were asked to document the process of making a

fine art print for this exhibition, including keeping working proofs.

The proofs exhibited are the tangible demonstration of the creative methodology of

the printmaker. Mostly relegated to the bin, or to the artist’s portfolio with notes and

recipes for the next venture forth, here the viewer is invited to engage in that process.

In Graphic Studio Dublin’s almost 50 years in existence, technical excellence and art

historical values have always been core. To that end the viewer is invited to enjoy the

finished ‘product’, the limited edition print which emerged from the many artist’s proofs.

Jackie Ryan Dr. Michael Ryan

CEO, Graphic Studio Dublin Director, Chester Beatty Library

Previous

400m Above Sauce Creek (detail)

Niall Naessens

Across

A Visit to the Chester Beatty Library (detail)

David Lilburn

vi

Acknowledgements

The Chester Beatty Library and Graphic Studio Dublin wish to thank …

Exhibition concept and curation: Brian Lalor

The artists: Norman Ackroyd RA, Gerard Cox, Gráinne Cuffe, Cliona Doyle,

Niamh Flanagan, Takahiko Hayashi, Desmond Kenny, Arno Kramer, Brian Lalor,

Jennifer Lane, Stephen Lawlor, Elaine Leader, Christopher Le Brun RA, Sharon Lee,

David Lilburn, James McCreary, Mary Modeen, Niall Naessens, Lars Nyberg,

Ruth O’Donnell, Tom Phelan, Barbara Rae RA, Robert Russell, Katherine Van Uytrecht.

Our sincere thanks also to Brian Lalor and Colm Tóibín who contributed essays to this

catalogue, and also to following companies, institutions and persons for their invaluable

assistance in organising this exhibition:

Chester Beatty Library:

Jessica Baldwin

Antonella Barbati

Justyna Chmielewska

Mary Dowling

Vera Greif

Charles Horton

June Lattimore

Dr. Shane McCausland

Derval O’Carroll

Dr. Michael Ryan

Paula Shalloo

Jenny Siung

Lorna Tracey

Sinéad Ward

Graphic Studio Dublin:

Ian Bewick

Gerard Cox

Mory Cunningham

Cliona Doyle

Niamh Flanagan

Martin Gale RHA

Nickie Hayden

Brian Lalor

Pamela Leonard

Sharon Lee

Osgar O’Neill

Geraldine O’Reilly

John O’Sullivan

Robert Russell

Jackie Ryan

Adrienne Symes

Donald Teskey RHA

Katherine Van Uytrecht

Graphic Studio Gallery:

Paula Kennedy

Niamh Mac Gowan

Catherine O’Riordan

Companies & Institutions:

The Arts Council


G. Ryder & Co. Ltd.


Graphic Studio Gallery

Limerick Printmakers

Progress Software

Peacock Visual Arts

Steendrukkerij Aad Hekker

Master Printers:

Aad Hekker for Arno Kramer

Robert Russell for Christopher Le Brun

Michael Waight for Barbara Rae

Progress Software

John O’Sullivan

Livia Henderson

Individuals:

Hannah Champion

Niamh Clancy

Caroline Donohue

Orla Gowen

Clare Henderson

Alison Lawlor

Richard Lawlor

Sharon Lee

Joe McCarthy

Susannah O’Reilly

Michael Timmins

Colm Tóibín

vii

Graphic Studio Dublin began its life in a part of Dublin which is rich in literary and

artistic associations. Many writers saw those few streets in the Georgian city between

Baggot Street, Merrion Square and the Grand Canal and beyond into Pembroke Road

as filled with rich memories and great ghosts and odd glimpses into a half-imagined

past. John Banville, for example, in a review of a book about the wife of the poet W.B.

Yeats, remembered a time in the early 1960s when he was living in Upper Mount

Street “in a flat in a decaying Georgian house”. The painter Anne Yeats, he wrote, the

daughter of the poet, “occupied the flat below mine; in physique, Anne Yeats was her

mother built to her father’s scale, and had an enchanting smile. We would often meet

on the stairs and stop to talk, usually about the dilapidated condition of the house and

the perfidy of the property company that owned it.” One day, as Banville was coming

up the stairs, he “saw Anne Yeats about to enter her flat, accompanied by a diminutive,

elderly lady. As I passed them by, and greeted Anne, I paid scant attention to the old

woman, in her wollen hat and outsize spectacles. She, however, turned to me and…

gave me a long, searching, cool, but not unfriendly stare.” The woman in question was

W.B. Yeats’ widow George.

In his novel Christine Falls, written under the pseudonym Benjamin Black, Banville

evoked that street in those years: “Drifts of soundless summer rain were graying

the trees in Merrion Square…the broad street was deserted, with not a car in sight,

and if not for the rain he would have been able to see unhindered all the way to the

Peppercanister Church, which always looked to him, viewed from a distance like this

down the broad, shabby sweep of Upper Mount Street, to be set at a slightly skewed

angle…He eyed the tall windows, thinking of all the shadowed rooms with people in

them, waking, yawning, getting up to make their breakfasts, or turning over to enjoy

another half-hour in the damp, warm stew of their beds.”

Nearby, in those same few years that Banville was writing about, Thomas Kinsella

composed his poem Baggot Street Deserta:

“The window is wide

On a crawling arch of stars, and the night

Reacts faintly to the mathematic

Passion of a cello suite

Plotting the quiet of my attic.”

Having contemplated human endurance and imaginative systems, his “fingers cold

against the sill”, the poet allowed his “quarter-inch of cigarette” to go “flaring down to

Baggot Street.”

Years later, Kinsella would remember a sight from the 1950s in a poem called The Last:

“Standing stone still on the path, with long pale chin

under a broad-brimmed hat, and aged eyes

staring down Baggot Street across his stick.

Jack Yeats. The last.”

The poet John Montague lived close by in Herbert Street. In his poem Herbert Street

Revisited he wrote of the new ghosts in his old flat:

“A light is burning late

in this Georgian Dublin Street:

someone is leading our old lives!”

In his memoir Dead as Doornails Anthony Cronin evoked the ghost of Patrick Kavanagh

as he made this area of Dublin his home: “Kavanagh lived at this time on the first floor

of a house in Pembroke Road…The end of Baggot Street that runs into it had then

three tolerable pubs, one bookmaker’s shop and a bookshop. This was his querencia.

Here he prowled, newspapers under arm, eyes baleful behind horn-rimmed glasses…

Seldom can there have been such a small area patrolled by genius.”

Graphic Studio DublinColm Toibin

1

Opposite

Andalucia (detail)

Barbara Rae RA

Kavanagh in his poem If You Ever Go To Dublin Town suggested that “on Pembroke

Road look out for my ghost.”

It is easy then to conjure up some other ghosts who walked in these streets, figures

with a portfolio under their arms and a look in their eye both visionary and immensely

practical, figures with a dream in their heads of baths of acid and plates of copper and

images made backwards and artists’ proofs and editions of fifty.

Graphic Studio Dublin was set up in 1960 at 18 Upper Mount Street by Patrick Hickey,

Anne Yeats, Elizabeth Rivers, Leslie McWeeney and Liam Miller, whose Dolmen Press

was at 23 Upper Mount Street. The aim was to establish in Dublin a professional print

studio; it was not for students, it was only for those with a serious vision. It helped to

fund itself by printing each year at Christmas a portfolio of four or five prints which was

presented to its benefactors. These came beautifully presented with superb lettering by

Liam Miller who was one of the pioneers of Irish book design.

Large numbers of Irish artists used Graphic Studio Dublin and it plays a central role in

the history and development of Irish art over the past fifty years. It also plays a part in

Irish literature. After her death, the poet Paul Muldoon wrote one of his most moving

and verbally exacting poems about one of the printmakers who worked there, Mary Farl

Powers. She became another ghost in these streets, one of the artists who “marched

from Mount Street to the Merrion Square arena”. In the poem, which is called Incantata,

Muldoon conjured up his friend the printmaker:

“I saw you again tonight, in your jump-suit, thin as a rake,

your hand moving in such a deliberate arc

as you ground a lithographic stone

that your hand and the stone blurred to one

and your face blurred into the face of your mother, Betty Wahl,

who took your failing, ink-stained hand

in her failing ink-stained hand

and together you ground down that stone by sheer force of will.”

Muldoon describes Mary Farl Powers as she “showed the great new acid bath/ in

the Graphic Studio, and again undid your portfolio/ to lay out your latest works” and

alluded also to “the Black Church clique and the Graphic Studio claque,” a reference to

the split which occurred in 1979 between two groups of Dublin printmakers. (It took a

generation for proper relations to be restored between the two groups, often known as

the Provos and the Stickies.)

As Dublin changed, those Georgian houses in Baggotonia, once so full of artists’

studios and cheap flats and deep and fruitful dreams, were converted to the

headquarters of advertising companies or multi-national enterprises. Graphic Studio

Dublin moved to the Docklands where it was to spend twenty-two years before selling

its lease and moving to a splendid building off the North Circular Road, near Croke

Park, where it is now housed. The Dublin of its original years was mourned in his long

poem The Yellow Book by Derek Mahon from his attic in Fitzwilliam Square:

“My attic window under the shining slates

where the maids slept in the days of Wilde and Yeats

sees crane-light where McAlpine’s fusiliers,

site hats and brick-dust, ruin the work of years.”

There is a funny atmosphere in a print studio. It is not like a painter’s studio where

untidiness, work half finished, jars with water, old brushes, half-squeezed tubes of paint

and old cd cases work hard against whatever natural light comes in. A print studio

is not a place where frenzied work can take place; it is a place of waiting, trying out,

watching, of moving slowly with great precision, of letting things take their course in

their own time. It is one of the few places left where people gather to work without

recourse to computers, where what is digitized and stored in software and hardware

are no use to anyone. If Rembrandt were to walk in here, into the ground floor of

Graphic Studio Dublin off the North Circular Road on an ordinary afternoon, he would

be surprised by electricity perhaps but not by much else, not by many of the age-old

systems which are still used to make prints as they were in his time.

He would watch them finding a copper plate and then heating the plate with a candle

and covering it with wax and then the artist etching onto the plate, using the stylus,

imagining everything backwards, every line and touch and smudge and cross-hatch.

And then putting the plate in a bath of acid which would attack the copper. And using

a feather to disturb any bubbles that might form in the acid. And where the artist has

made the mark on the wax, the mark would remain and be revealed as the acid did its

work.

2

He would watch artists working in woodcut, where the grain of the wood would make

its way onto the paper. Artists using Japanese systems and western systems, thinking

backwards, using wet or soft paper. No one looking for uniformity, no one trying to

make a set of identical prints; instead, as proofs are made and new layers are added,

everyone looking for the perfection of a hand-made object. He would watch artists add

layer after layer to make a print, working like surgeons, with patience, skill, precision,

and working also with pure imagination.

There are moments in this process which are like magic, when you have made the print

and pull back the blankets on the press and look beneath to see what has emerged,

to check if the colours are right, or the lines are etched deeply enough. But most of the

day is spent slowly preparing the ground for magic, saying little, making no mistakes

and working in collaboration to achieve certain effects.

For writers who work in longhand using ink, as I do, there is something wonderful

about curling a letter a little more than is necessary, or letting the last word in a

sentence have a certain flourish. Or even watching the ink dry or looking at the different

textures of patterns ink makes on paper.

I have come to Graphic Studio Dublin with the last page of a recently completed novel.

I watch the wax being spread and rolled on the copper plate as it is prepared for me

to write this page out so some prints can be made of it. The wax is soft, so every mark

I make will appear. I am left alone. I must move slowly, carefully. I know if I think too

much I will make a mistake, but if I am careless I will leave a big smudge or some lines

at the side that we don’t need.

This is lovely slow work, especially since I don’t have to work backwards as what

comes from the copper can be traced onto paper from which the final print can be

made. Making a beautiful capital letter, or letting a word have an aura of stillness and

security in how it is written out, or ending a line early, or letting a letter curl upwards

at the end, all of this has a satisfaction around it, with words being given their full due,

their body as much as their soul on display here.

When it is done, the process is slow. I can have a long lunch while the acid does its

work, and then go and look at what the artists upstairs are doing, study each stage in

the prints they are making, before going down again to watch the print itself emerging

like new life in its first proof. The last page of a new book.

Slowly then in the new building new prints are being made by the artists who work

there, and by invited artists. And slowly, too, in place of the Georgian city around

Baggot Street, which once belonged to artists, a new set of streets where people with

vision and flair and patience and seriousness can walk with portfolios under their arms

is emerging. The North Circular Road awaits its poets.

Acknowledgement is due to John Banville, The New York Review of Books and Picador; Thomas

Kinsella and Carcanet Press; John Montague and Gallery Press; Anthony Cronin and Lilliput Press;

Derek Mahon and Gallery Press; Paul Muldoon and Faber & Faber.

3

Robert Russell, Studio Director, Graphic Studio Dublin, smoking hard ground with tapers.

“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as

it is: infinite. This I shall do by printing in the infernal method, by corrosives,

which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and

displaying the infinite which was hid.”

William Blake (1)

The visionary poet and artist William Blake was among the pioneers of experimentation

in printmaking. He developed original techniques to answer the needs of his personal

artistic quest. Blake was much more a man of our time than of his own, and he would

have risen to the challenge of the theme of this exhibition with a sense of certainty that

through the methodology of printmaking truths would be revealed.

This exhibition is exploratory in that printmaking processes are presented to the

viewer as a sequence of phased engagements between the artists and their intention,

modulated through their chosen chemical or physical processes. Present-day

printmaking embraces a vastly wider range of media than those available in Blake’s

time, yet the elements of all printmaking remain constant, the state-by-state building up

and blending of processes to achieve a goal, often tentative in its incompleteness – or

so the artist of today would feel.

When is a print finished? This is a question to which there is no precise answer but we

might empathise with Rembrandt’s dictum “a work is finished when an artist realises

his intentions”. Slightly more tangible is the question, “When is a print begun?” The

first mark on the matrix represents a beginning although there may have been many

preparatory drawings and trials. Two singular examples (2) of unfinished engravings from

the fifteenth/sixteenth centuries present diametrically opposed information concerning

artists and their individual points of departure. In Mantegna’s Virgin and Child in a

Grotto (c. 1475), the engraver has worked from the centre of the plate outwards,

delineating in complex detail the figures and their surroundings, leaving the background

in outline. In contrast, Dürer in his Fall of Man (c. 1504), has laid in an intensely worked

background while the figures of Adam and Eve are represented by the most ephemeral

of suggestion. Artist Drawing From a Model (1639), Rembrandt, etching, drypoint and burin. Rembrandhuis, Amsterdam.

4

Infernal and Other MethodsBrian Lalor

Later than both of these prints is Rembrandt’s unfinished etching with drypoint and

burin, Artist Drawing From a Model (1639). (3) Here Rembrandt has used the plate to

render some areas, the background to the scene, in richly hatched deep tones while

other elements, the artist and the model, are represented as elusively as Dürer’s figures.

Prints of Rembrandt’s unfinished plate were circulating within the artist’s lifetime so

we can infer that he relished the brilliant unfinished aspects of the image and that

contemporary collectors appreciated the mastery that the print demonstrated. The

impetus for Artist’s Proof derived from a lecture that I gave at the Chester Beatty

Library in 2006 in which I considered the various states of Rembrandt’s etching, The

Flight into Egypt by Night (1651). From this evolved the idea of examining present-day

printmaking practice, by highlighting the working methods of individual print artists.

In Artist’s Proof, the approach of the participants is as various as that of artists of the

past, some arriving at a conclusion in a minimum of states, others hovering over the

image as it goes through multiple states until a point of resolution has been reached.

Fifteen of the twenty-four participants have worked in variants of the medium favoured

by Rembrandt, etching. The dominance of etching is a measure of its prominence

as a medium among the artists of Graphic Studio Dublin. Three artists have pursued

lithography while other media in decreasing frequency are; two using woodcut and one

each, mezzotint and photo-intaglio. The latter pair represents a contrast in a follower of

the eighteenth century’s most celebrated print medium, mezzotint, with the twentieth

century’s most innovative, lens-based media.

For sheer virtuosity of experimentation the etchers present work of great interest, with

a demonstration of the breath of this medium as it is teased and manipulated by a

practiced and accomplished group of printmakers. Etching, as intaglio printmaking,

implies that the lines and tones are indented beneath the surface of a plate, using

corrosive fluids to create the marks. The ink is held by the indentations and transferred

under pressure to the paper.

In the work of David Lilburn and Robert Russell, false starts are presented beside

the final image. Here the intellectual process is made visible by the manner in which

the artists have rejected their first (and subsequent) thoughts in favour of some later

and more satisfying approach. Niamh Flanagan also records a similar and difficult

search for the desired image, a battle with the concept. To Takahiko Hayashi the

process resembles a theatrical performance, to Stephen Lawlor—following nearly forty

states—a desire to ‘create an image which carries its own ambiguity’.

David Lilburn, preparatory pen sketches for A Visit to the Chester Beatty Library

5

As the dominant technical group, the etchers present an encyclopaedic overview of this

medium, with each artist adding subtle variants of the technique, or combining it with

related approaches. Norman Ackroyd works in pure aquatint, a tonal variant of etching

(more often combined with etched lines). With successive building up of the aquatint

and burnishing out of areas, he allows the image to be created from tones alone. More

traditionally, Gráinne Cuffe and Cliona Doyle have followed the approach of an initial

drawn line that in later states is enhanced by the addition of the tonal aquatint, Doyle

also adds gold leaf. The change in printing from the initial black line to colour absorbs

the linear element into the tonal and the former quite magically disappears. Flanagan

combines the linear and tonal with a further etching variant, spit bite, allowing for the

manipulation of more arbitrary forms in the aquatint.

Hayashi uses a very deeply etched line, one of the most historic of print approaches,

to create a print surface that has a strongly tactile quality, enhancing it with chine

collée and drypoint. He also has added an extra plate to the base of his image, an old

Rembrandt trick of changing the shape to create a better balance. Desmond Kenny

uses an etched line and aquatint followed by colour experimentation to define his

final state where modulations of colour become the area where the definitive image

is revealed. Brian Lalor develops the image from finely to deeply bitten lines with the

subsequent addition of aquatint, burnishing and drypoint. Lawlor exploits the use of

the pure etched mark on the plate to build up a textured and variegated surface, later

adding aquatint and colour. Elaine Leader uses quite lightly etched lines, followed by

aquatint to create a delicate harmony of line and tone while Christopher Le Brun again

uses the pure etched line, worked over in various states, with finally, a cutting down of

one plate. Here, two plates printed in black, provide the final image.

Niall Naessens and Ruth O’Donnell, in distinctively different styles, bring their print through

many monochrome states to a conclusion in full colour. The contrast in the texture of

their line in the early states is derived from Naessens using an etching needle drawn into

a hard ground, while O’Donnell’s method is in soft-ground drawn through tissue paper,

giving a softer and more tentative line. Tom Phelan also used contrasts in hard and soft

grounds to vary the texture of his printing, adding a rollup to provide a background tone,

as well as written comments on the progress of the image. Finally in the etching group,

Robert Russell’s print is the result of four distinct beginnings. The chosen version is

enhanced by cross-hatching, drypoint and plate tone, the most direct and time-honoured

of all etching approaches. Barbara Rae also uses etching with rollups to create a highly

layered effect where the colours blend luminously on the surface of the plate.

Lithography, the second most represented medium, begins from the alternate

planographic principle, the opposite of intaglio, that the image is created on the surface of

a smooth stone or metal plate. The quality of line and tone in lithography differ completely

to that of etching, being more related to marks produced by pencil, crayon or washes,

the tones are similarly fluid. Three artists have used lithography, Arno Kramer, Sharon

Lee, and Katherine Van Uytrecht. Kramer establishes his image in free drawing over

two stones, adding images in tusche, exploiting the fluidity of the medium. Lee imposes

a form upon a subtext, while in intermediate states experiments with variations to the

orientation of the form as well as to the subtext, while Van Uytrecht plays with disparate

elements, adding and taking away background and motifs until the final image is realised.

Woodcut, the oldest of all printmaking media which exploits the relief process of the ink

remaining on the surface in flat areas, is approached by Gerard Cox and Jennifer Lane

through the Japanese reduction method. This implies that all proofs of a single state

6

are printed before the blocks are cut further, then all the next state is overprinted until

the concluding build up of detail is reached. While Cox uses a white European printing

paper that pushes the colour forward, Lane conforms to the Japanese use of semi-

translucent paper that give the colours a slightly submerged quality.

Two artist have used drypoint, working into the surface of the plate with an engraving

tool. The character of this medium is in the softness and fuzzy outline of the marks

made. David Lilburn, his images developed from rough on-the-spot sketches, follows a

number of individual approaches in drypoint, while the final two-plate image is primarily

in etching with drypoint from a second plate. Lars Nyberg’s print, which begins as

a simple exercise in pure draughtsmanship, is subsequently enhanced by a circular

motif, but in the final state reverts to the original concept by the burnishing out of this

surround.

James McCreary works in mezzotint where the plate surface is raised in a myriad of

flecks that hold the ink. This is then scraped and burnished down to create an image.

In his four-plate print the build-up of the colours is by multiple colour-states, leading

to the intensity of the final image. Aquatint has been added to the mezzotint with an

extensive written commentary on the work-in-progress, demonstrating the approach

of many printmakers to the process whereby ongoing evaluations of the states charts

aesthetic/technical progress. Mary Modeen combines lens-based and hand drawn

photo-intaglio elements, enhanced by chine collée and gold leaf. As in any more

traditional approach to printmaking, the states demonstrate the logical pursuit of the

artist’s vision.

Whether an artist arrives at the final proof by thirteen or by three states, the

interrogative process is one that would have been immediately recognised by

printmakers of past centuries. To artists who work in print media the final proof state

is the point at which the image is editioned, while the early states represent those lost

moments in time when the work might have been stopped: they are like photographic

memories of images now no longer recoverable. The states represent the artist in the

process of creation, poised between what went before and the ambition to reveal that

“which was hidden”.

NOTES

(1) Blake, William, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plate 14,1790-3.

(2) Parshall, Peter, et al., The Unfinished Print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001.

(3) Ornstein-Van Slooten, Eva, et al., The Rembrandt House, a catalogue of Rembrandt’s etchings,

Wanders Publishers, Zwolle, 2008, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.

Homage to Hamaguchi

James McCreary

From left to right

(1) Pencil drawing with tracing overlay

(2) Tracing

(3) Black keyplate and collage of butterfly

(4) Black keyplate with butterfly

(5) Yellow plate

(6) Yellow and red plates

(7) Yellow and red and blue plates

(8) Final BAT Image (All four plates)

7

This Page

Idyll (detail) - Inked up area of plate to check progress

Brian Lalor

Opposite

Doublestream (detail)

Arno Kramer

10


Situated in the heart of Dublin city centre, Chester

Beatty Library’s exhibitions open a window on

the artistic treasures of the great cultures and

religions of the world. The library’s rich collection

of manuscripts, prints, icons, miniature paintings,

early printed books and objet d’art from countries

across Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and

Europe offers visitors a visual feast—all the

collecting activities of one man—

Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968).

Charles Horton, Curator, CBL

Top Left


Bottom Left

Chester Beatty Library atrium, shop and restaurant

Main

Chester Beatty Library from Dubh Linn Garden

11

Stephen Lawlor demonstrating etching at Graphic Studio Dublin

12 Graphic Studio Dublin


Graphic Studio Dublin has pioneered fine art

printmaking in Ireland for almost half a century

and has been at the forefront of promoting print

as a major artist’s discipline. The Studio was

founded in 1960 and its Gallery outlet, Graphic

Studio Gallery in 1988.

Its mission is to provide studio facilities and technical assistance to artists to make fine

art prints; to promote fine art printmaking in Ireland and abroad; to educate the public

about fine art printmaking; to exhibit and sell fine art prints on behalf of our member

artists.

Graphic Studio Dublin’s new studio in Distillery House, North Circular Road, Dublin 1.

Distillery House is a superb 7,000 square foot, four storey building, accommodating

shared studio space for 68 members, and up to 20 visiting and associated artists per

annum.

Significant Graphic Studio Dublin activities include the Visiting Artist’s Programme,

collaborative exhibitions with major public institutions, touring exhibitions abroad,

scholarships for fine art print graduates and an education programme. Graphic Studio

Gallery in Temple Bar, Dublin 2 represents a wide range of established and emerging

artists and hosts an annual series of solo and group exhibitions.

Graphic Studio Dublin collaborates with major cultural partners in Ireland and abroad,

including the Chester Beatty Library, Irish Museum of Modern Art, National Museum

of Ireland and the National Gallery of Ireland to showcase the highest level of fine art

printmaking (by our own members, and other international artists). During the period

2009-2011 international partnerships and exhibitions include: Edinburgh Printmakers

(Scotland), Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (France), and Muzeum Dwóry Karwacjanów i

Gladyszów, Gorlice, (Poland).

Graphic Studio Dublin is a non-profit orginisation and has charitable status. It is

approved by the Irish Revenue Commissioners for tax deductable donations under

section 484a of the Taxes Consolidation Acts.

For further information see: www.graphicstudiodublin.com

Second floor, Graphic Studio Dublin 13

Nineteen boxed sets are available containing a complete series of the twenty-four

limited edition prints from the exhibition. Each solander(1) box is manufactured to the

highest conservation standard by G. Ryder & Co, (box makers to H.M. The Queen

since 1914). These superbly crafted boxes offer a substantial saving of over 30% of the

total exhibition price to both private and corporate buyers.

Solander box number one will enter the permanent collection of the Chester Beatty

Library, the others are available to purchase for corporate collections, archives or

private collectors. When you buy a boxed set of Artist’s Proof you are investing in the

future of Graphic Studio Dublin. As a non-profit artists’ organisation all commission on

sales is invested in the development of studio and support facilities for artists. It makes

sound financial sense too, since Irish art has appreciated by over 800% since 1976 .(2)

For further information or to reserve a solander boxed set of Artist’s Proof, please

contact Jackie Ryan, CEO, Graphic Studio Dublin.

Tel: 01-8170945


(1) Daniel Solander 1733-1782:

Daniel Solander was a Swedish botanist at the British Museum. He invented an archival box for the

storage and display of his botanical specimens. The name solander has now been given to archival

storage boxes used by museums and Graphic Studio Dublin for its limited edition boxed sets.

(2) A Buyers Guide to Irish Art, Ashville Media Group, 2003.

Education Programme

A full education programme has been developed around the exhibition Artist’s Proof,

comprising artist’s talks, print demonstrations, a schools’ programme and international

master-classes. For further information please see www.graphicstudiodublin.com and

www.cbl.ie

Limited Edition Boxed Set

Right

Katherine Van Uytrecht demonstrating lithography at Graphic Studio Dublin

Opposite

James McCreary working on Homage to Hamaguchi at Graphic Studio Dublin

14

15

Norman Ackroyd RA, Gerard Cox, Gráinne Cuffe, Cliona Doyle, Niamh Flanagan,

Takahiko Hayashi, Desmond Kenny, Arno Kramer, Brian Lalor, Jennifer Lane,

Stephen Lawlor, Elaine Leader, Christopher Le Brun RA, Sharon Lee,

David Lilburn, James McCreary, Mary Modeen, Niall Naessens,

Lars Nyberg, Ruth O’Donnell, Tom Phelan, Barbara Rae RA,

Robert Russell, Katherine Van Uytrecht.

16

List of Participating Artists

17

Great Blasket Sound

Aquatint on Somerset paper

(30.5 cm x 25 cm)

Great Blasket Sound is produced in classic direct sugar aquatint.

A very fine but rich white rosin aquatint is laid on the plate and the drawing is executed

with a variety of brushes in saturated sugar and the image lifted then etched in

perchloride of iron and/or nitric acid.

Each state requires either deleting by burnishing and polishing or adding to by laying

another aquatint, then sugar, then acid.

The final state was reached after 12-14 such interim states.

Great Blasket Sound separates Great Blasket Island, the site of the most westerly

village in Europe, from the Irish mainland in Co. Kerry.

Norman Ackroyd RA

Proof 4

18

Previous

Excavation, (Proof 2)

Elaine Leader

Proof 7 BAT

19

Desert Star

Woodblock on Fabriano Rosaspina Bianco paper 285 gsm

(33.5 cm x 18.5 cm)

A trip across West Africa during Ramadan left me curious to find out more about Islam.

Since attending the Understanding Islam conference in the Chester Beatty Library in

2004 I have been interested in Islamic art. This new interest led me to visit Tunisia.

I collect hats and bought many in Tunisia. I like them because they are covered in

brightly coloured geometric designs. Beautiful Islamic art to wear on the head.

Crossing the Tunisian desert we came upon a settlement, a group of strange dwellings,

ancient yet futuristic. This was not a mirage. It was a film set from a Star Wars movie.

Desert Star brings these interests and memories together. The print was made using

two birch ply blocks. The first was used to print the three shades of red and blue. The

second block printed the grey and gold.

Gerard Cox

Proof 3

20

Proof 6 BAT

21

Dianthus I

Etching on Zerkall paper

(30 cm x 30 cm)

This is a line and aquatint etching. Some of the aquatint is burnished. These Dianthus

grow in pots at our front door. They have eight or nine different colour variations, the

little white bits and the edges vary. They are eminently suitable for etching. There is a

beautiful altar cloth in a Romanesque church in Montefalco, Umbria, embroidered with

a multi-petalled, multi-shaded Dianthus. The flower is six foot wide. It was a shocking

surprise to see it in the shady church. This etching is a bow to the makers of that altar

cloth, and a curtsy to another tradition of botanical art and a general feeling of delight

that I share my world with this five petalled beauty.

Gráinne Cuffe

Proof 1

22

Proof 3 BAT

23

Before the Storm

Etching and gold leaf on Fabriano Rosaspina Avorio paper

(47 cm x 32 cm)

The proofing process can be a very lengthy and time consuming process. On this

occasion, the colour and image needed very little adjustment, which rarely happens.

Quite often, I make a dozen or more proofs in order to get the result I want. I imagined

this image with silver leaf, at first, but the gold leaf was richer.

In Japan, Irises are symbols of heroism. The Irises long narrow leaves resemble the

blade of a sword. For many centuries it has been the custom to place Iris leaves in a

boy’s bath to give him a martial spirit.

In China the Iris is believed to ward off evil spirits and diseases.

Cliona Doyle

Proof 1

24

Proof 2 BAT

25

‘Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On...’

Etching with spitbite and sugar lift on Hahnemühle paper 350 gsm

(47 cm x 32 cm)

Sometimes a print takes flight, and there is very little to be done about it.

I want to make a print based on Dublin Castle. But every time I draw it, it seems to

resist. This castle is trying to move! New drawings, new plates, getting bigger and

bigger. No, this plate is too small, this castle too literal, too heavy - too weighed down.

This castle wants to multiply, this castle wants to fly, unfettered into the sky. All of a

sudden the castle has transformed into a fleet of papery fortresses, in a strange world

where battlements and bricks grow from the ground under the half-light of a dripping

dark moon.

The title comes from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, where Prospero’s pageant

has “melted into air, into thin air”. I imagine these fragile paper castles could dissolve

and vanish too, returning the castle to the ground, leaving no trace of the dream it has

left behind.

Niamh Flanagan

Proof 7

26

Proof 13 BAT

2727

Spinning Wind

Etching with chine collée on Gampi paper

(Proof 1: 29.5 cm x 19.5 cm, Proof 3 and BAT: 32.5 cm x 19.5 cm)

I often compare my printing to a theatrical performance.

First, my image is an original work as an author. And to make a printing plate is the

same as making a scenario. Many artists finish here, but it is important for me to

continue after this. I believe that Ink and Paper have personalities as Actor and Stage,

respectively. They each have their own cultural background, and there is no blank

paper that behaves exactly as the artist wishes. It is especially important for me to use

traditional Japanese Gampi paper. I use a technique chine collée. This is a method of

adhering thin pieces of coloured paper to the larger printing paper at the same time

that the inked image is printed.

Proof 1

Proof 2 added etching, chine collée with a Gampi paper

Proof 3 added etching, drypoint, and a small plate

Proof 4 changed the bottom colour

BAT added chine collée to the bottom part with a indigo Gampi paper

Takahiko Hayashi

Proof 1

28

Proof 3 BAT29

She Will Do It, For Me

Aquatint & spitbite on Hahnemühle (deodorised) paper

(40 cm x 32 cm)

I have being making art for the past 22 years and have exhibited widely throughout the

country. I joined Graphic Studio Dublin 4 years ago. About a third of my artistic output

is of the nude. This print and all my work of the nude are based on drawings from life in

my studio.

I like to make art which as Picasso said “has something of the armpit about it”. An

art not de-odorised by truth or beauty, but that has that visceral quality of the human

presence, that lends a sense of the real to a work of art.

This image was created using etching, aquatint and spit-biting. Three plates where

used, the black and white master plate and two colour plates.

The master plate image was transferred to the two colour plates. One plate contained

the flesh colours for the nude figures. The second plate contains the colour for the

background wall and mirror, and the colour for the floor.

Spit biting was used on the figures to round off the shading and soften the edges. Spit

biting allows the artist to work in local areas, without having to immerse the whole plate

in the acid baths and thus prevent pitting on the plate.

In the final edition I used the small ball burnisher on the master plate in areas to allow

the colour of the second and third plates to come through on the print.

Desmond Kenny

Proof 1

30

Proof 4 BAT

31

Doublestream

Lithograph with tusche on BFK Rives paper 250 gsm

(47 cm x 32 cm)

Master printer: Aad Hekker

Artist’s statement:

Since 1995 I have been several times Artist-in-Residence in Ireland. I am very much

inspired by Irish poetry. Once seeing a photograph of a shop with Christening dresses

in the Irish Times, I introduced this image in the past in my work, alongside images of

the human body - hands, feet, etc. I often combine organic, with non-organic forms,

like screens and invented mathematic images. My work is layered and enigmatic. There

should always be a “state of desire” in the drawing and I would like to make visible “the

reconnaissance of the back of the soul, the spirit and the heart”.

Master printer’s statement:

People often ask me: “Don’t you make images yourself?” My answer is: “Look, this

is what I make.” and I show around to all the lithographs I have printed for artists.

Working with an artist, to make good and contemporary prints, is for me something

like creating and printing images that are more than the sum of a drawing on a stone

and a perfect technique. It is a creation on a different level. Which should also be an

adventure to find out what development is.

Arno Kramer

Proof 1

32

Proof 3 BAT

33

Idyll

Etching & aquatint on Fabriano Rosaspina Bianco paper 350 gsm

(Proof 1 and 5: 47 cm x 32 cm, BAT: 45.5 cm 30.5 cm)

Etched in ferric chloride on a single copper plate, the print went through eleven states

and was proofed on cream 200gm Fabriano. The 1st State was a simple line etching: 1

to 5 were built up by successive elaborations of the etched areas with cross hatching,

the primary forms more deeply etched. Plate tone was exploited from the 3rd State.

From the 6th State, aquatint was added, lightly in some areas, boldly in others. In the

8th State, burnishing was used to reduce the aquatint which had become too strong.

By the 9th and 10th State, drypoint was added to the lower edge of the nimbus and

rouletting to soften outlines and contours. In the 11th State, the copper plate, which

matched the paper size, was cut down by 1/2 cm all round in order to create a narrow

paper margin for the image. The BAT was editioned on white 350gm Fabriano.

Brian Lalor

Proof 1

34

Proof 5 BAT

35

Pine and Blue Sky

Woodblock on Japanese paper

(16 cm x 16 cm)

Using birch plywood, this woodblock print was made in four colours, using etching

inks and transparent medium, on Japanese paper. The first colour was pale yellow,

with some outline cuts on the block. Further cuts were made and the yellow was

overprinted in blue, with the sun area masked out. Again, additional cuts were made

in the block and the yellow/blue was overprinted with red, having masked out the

‘sky’ area of the block. Finally, some of the branches were overprinted with blue/burnt

sienna.

Jennifer Lane

Proof 1

36

Proof 3 BAT

37

Surface

Etching on Hahnemühle (natural) paper 350 gsm colour no. 740

(12 cm x 14 cm)

Painting has given me a different perspective on making etchings and has consciously

influenced me in the making of this print.

I started the image in the way I normally would but with the intention of keeping a very

open mind on what direction the image would take at any stage, overriding any barriers

that might arise. Etching is a medium that naturally creates caution in an artist and

restricts the possibility of change.

There were nearly forty proofs that led to the final version on the way to which one

becomes intimately familiar with the tiny nuances of the plates. Subtle gradations in

plate tone that overlap on all four plates create a sensation that can not be achieved in

any other medium.

My objective was to create an image which carries its own ambiguity while retaining

traces of what is familiar.

Stephen Lawlor

Proof 4

38

Proof 18 BAT

39

Excavation


(15.5 cm x 19.5 cm)

I draw upon a number of sources in the construction of my prints including field guides,

mapping, botanical and architectural illustration to investigate how the self orientates

and navigates a world in constant flux. My work addresses themes of care, nurture and

dependency.

I utilise a wide variety of printmaking techniques in the construction of my images,

layering multiple plates with spit bite, hardground, aquatint and roll ups. The process

involves lengthy proofing to arrive at a subtle balanced tonal range.

Elaine Leader

Proof 1

40

Proof 2 BAT

41

The Palace of Art

Etching on Zerkall paper 350 gsm (Proof 1 (Plate 1) and BAT: 23 cm x 24.5 cm, Proof 1 (Plate 2): 20 cm x 21.5 cm)Master printer: Robert Russell


This etching is based on a drawing I made for the Victoria and Albert Museum’s 150th

Anniversary album in 2007. 150 artists, designers, architects and photographers

were invited to contribute a page to convey what they found most inspiring about the

collection—hence the title The Palace of Art. Having worked through the idea in several

watercolours I wanted to continue thinking about it in the form of a print. There are

many precedents but amongst them are Sir Alfred Tennyson’s poem of the same title,

and Samuel Palmer’s drawing, A Towered City or The Haunted Stream itself based on a

passage from John Milton’s L’Allegro.


Two plates of different sizes were used for this print, which created a border around

the image. They were both prepared and hard ground applied. Christopher drew on

both plates using an etching needle and they were etched in nitric acid and proofed. An

aquatint was then applied to the smaller plate and it was etched using spit bite. Final

touches were made to the drawing using a dry point needle, burnisher and scraper

before the BAT was pulled.

Christopher Le Brun RA

Proof 1 (Plate 1)

42

Proof 1 (Plate 2) BAT

43

Documentation

Lithograph on Hahnemühle paper 300 gsm with Sekishu paper 18 gsm

(29 cm x 32 cm)

Documentation of process is very important to me as an artist and as a printmaker. My

print incorporates documentation sources from the Chester Beatty Library.

The BAT is documented as follows:

7 Run, 5 colour lithograph on Hahnemühle 300g/m2 with Sekishu 18g/m2

Executed as follows:

Run 1 Transparent burnt umber on Hahnemühle

On reverse side of Sekishu:

Run 2 Transparent cream flat

Run 3 Green

Run 4 Transparent red

On front of Sekishu:

Run 5 Transparent cream flat

Run 6 Navy

Run 7 Chine collée 12cm from top, 7cm from left hand side.

The trial proofs contain variations of colour, run order, paper and composition, taking

advantage of the qualities and characteristics of the paper and ink films.

Sharon Lee

Proof 3

44

Proof 6 BAT

45

A Visit to the Chester Beatty Library

Etching and drypoint on Fabriano Rosaspina Avorio paper 285 gsm

(Versions 1 & 2: 36 cm x 24 cm, BAT: 47 cm x 32 cm)

Intaglio (two plates: drypoint, etching, scraper, roulette wheels, engraving) To get

to the Chester Beatty Library, you first have to enter Dublin Castle. Once you pass

through one of the massive stone gates you are in what was for centuries the centre

of administrative power in Ireland. No longer a symbol of oppressive power, it still

resonates ‘interesting times’. It is an apt setting for the amazing treasure chest of

manuscripts, prints, early printed books, scrolls and miniature paintings that are housed

and displayed in the Chester Beatty Library, which contain a captivating profusion of

images: (not of sex, its true) but of violence, romance, rituals and stories from some of

the great cultures of Asia, Europe and North Africa.

David Lilburn

Version 1 Proof

46

Version 2 Proof BAT

47

Homage to Hamaguchi

Mezzotint and aquatint on Hahnemühle (natural) paper 350 gsm

(14.5 cm x 11.5 cm)

My work pays tribute to one of the finest mezzotint artists of the last century, Yozo

Hamaguchi (1909-2000). I first encountered Hamaguchi’s work over thirty years ago at

an exhibition in Belfast, and felt an immediate affinity with the great Japanese master’s

remarkable ability to fetch powerful art ‘out of almost nothing’.

The apparent simplicity of Hamaguchi’s imagery, of an individuated world stripped to

its essential mysterious qualities, is something which I have endeavoured to bring to

this work, with the help of the still reverberating echoes of that eye-opening visit to the

Ulster Museum, Belfast.

James McCreary

Proof 1

48

Proof 2 BAT

49

Proof 1

Sometimes In An Ordinary Moment…

Photo-intaglio and chine collée on Hahnemühle paper

(30.5 cm x 20 cm)

Much of my work lies in the intersection of place, memory, identity and values. This

image in its final state is intended to beckon memories of ordinary moments which

hint at other times and places, at moments in the past. The ghostly overlaid/underlaid

fragments, the suggestion of warmth – all combine to connect ‘otherness’ with this

very ordinary time and place. The hand drawn leaves roughly imposed suggest the

personal element, and finally, the inevitable failure of representation. Or perhaps it’s just

a print…

Proof 1: Too grey – not enough contrast or black blacks. Back images almost lost.

Need to make changes in image of new plate.

Proof 2: Second plate: hand painted stencil deeply photo-etched, with aquatint, on

steel. Chine collée with blue gold-flecked tissue. Hand wiped with French

chalk.

Proof 3: First print with both plates - first printing with photo-intaglio plate (First one

too grey), and green chine collée. Then, second plate with black ink and

middle leaf chine collée. Two chine collés don’t work, brown too washed out.

Proof 4: Two plates - first photo-intaglio plate (original) printed in brownish black

with yellow left-hand leaf chine collée. Unbalanced. Too drab – needs better

(richer/warmer) colour.

Proof 5: Two plates - new photo-intaglio plate with re-worked image, more contrasty,

richer blacks. Printed in brown/black. Second plate, printed in blue-black

with green central leaf chine collée. Punchier image, black ‘ghosted’ images

reading better, but still too grim in feeling overall.

BAT: Two plates - First is new (contrasty) photo-intaglio printed in burnt umber

with black, plus a relief roll over the wiped plate in golden yellow, ruby

red and transparent extender. Second plate is blue-black, with centrally

positioned chine collée in blue tissue with metallic flecks.

Mary Modeen

Proof 1

50

Proof 2 BAT

51

400m Above Sauce Creek

Etching on Zerkall paper 350 gsm

(19 cm x 17.5 cm)

400m Above Sauce Creek is a three plate etching printed in five colours. The key

plate is a hardground drawing that was etched in three different stages to build up the

drawing. Parts of the drawing were burnished back. Eight proofing stages were made

of this plate. I then made two aquatint plates. It took another eight proofing stages to

modify the aquatints and to colour proof the print.

Proofing is the most important tool the etcher has. Through proofing the idea matures.

An etching takes on its own identity and the source drawing becomes redundant. I

draw on proofs to develop the image and then work on the plates. A finished print is

the sum of many interventions, corrections additions and deletions. Every modification

requires a proof. Normally I tear up all working proofs, often as many as 20, before I

start printing the edition.

Niall Naessens

Proof 8

52

Proof 14 BAT

53

All the Plants

Hand coloured drypoint on Somerset (soft white) paper 300 gsm

(18.5 cm x 15 cm)

There is always something unpredictable happening when working with drypoint, I

can never be sure of the result, what the proof looks like when I lift the paper from the

copper plate. The inscribed lines live their own lives in the copper – I like that.

This print is based upon botanical studies from a garden in a remote part of Gotland,

a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. Various, gentle, and for me anonymous flowers,

grass and other small nice things. A group portrait of a few that I have met, a discreet

gathering in a corner of our wild garden.

Proof 1

A very quick sketch in the copper plate after many drawings on paper, trying to come

closer to the idea, to come closer to the flowers.

Proof 2

Now they (the bunch of botanical friends) and I have come closer. An oval frame can

perhaps suggest a group portrait? Maybe the blue butterfly can sit and rest upon the

oval? Or some flowers could climb and use the oval as a support?

BAT

The oval frame has gone, the insects, the flowers, stalks and all the little things on the

ground, will instead create an oval by themselves. All those small details…! When I look

closely into the copper, I imagine wandering among this rich vegetal world as if a small

insect. Maybe I should add more plants to the group portrait? I also know I must stop

now. Yet I could continue working and wandering around in the plate for longer, it is

often like that.

Lars Nyberg

Proof 1

54

Proof 2 BAT

55

Handle with Care


(20 cm x 20 cm)

This composition focuses on a single object in a square, a format I have been working

with for a while. The teapot in the image has a provenance and a presence in my life

and work. Opening it up is designed to draw in the viewer. The image was built up,

layer-by-layer, using the techniques of soft ground line, stopping out with bitumen,

varying grades of aquatint, spit biting and freehand sugar-lift line on four successive

plates. On each plate, the marks are multi-tasking in the interest of the narrative and

emotional content, as well as functioning as compositional devices.

Ruth O’Donnell

Proof 2

56

Proof 7 BAT

57

Roma Drawing

Etching on Zerkall paper 350 gsm(15 cm x 20 cm)

Artists’ Proof, unlike other invited group shows I have been in, has no specific theme.

Therefore one’s normal work practice, methods and deliberations etc. are the theme.

This image is straight from my notebook. I only use either a black pen or pencil,

working drawings are never in colour, as colour changes on the move! A rough colour

template will be in my mind from the conception of the drawing, but the image will

never be held to it or to any one method such as intaglio or relief. There are no rules, so

why invent them to chain yourself to. No one really likes a martyr.

Tom Phelan

Proof 1

58

Proof 4 BAT

59

Andalucia

Etching on Zerkall paper 450 gsm(28.5 cm x 19.7 cm)

Master printer: Michael Waight


I have worked in many print workshops from Santa Fe to Aberdeen. The collaborative

process between printer and artist is one where the printer has to try to realise the

potential of the artist’s vision and also to guide them through the technical process.

I have worked with Mike Waight at Peacock Print Studio several times, working on

quite complex etchings/collographs. The results have been rich and vibrant with layers

of colour and texture. This print was inspired by paintings that I have been doing in

Spain. I rarely do black and white prints as I am interested in what happens when

colours overlap and react with one another.


Barbara worked directly onto the plate which was cut to allow for a border. We used

zinc to get a fast deep etch. A degreased plate was warmed slightly allowing her to draw

directly onto the surface with fluidity, using a lithographic crayon. The plate was then

covered with straw-hat varnish, the crayon marks removed with white spirit and those

exposed marks given to the acid for biting. A pitted mark was later added, a little like

an aquatint, which was applied by using a stiff black ink rolled over its surface. If the ink

is stiff enough it will have pin prick areas where the ink hasn’t coated the plate so that

acid can pit its surface. The plate was then put back in the acid for a 30 second dip.

The blue and red ink was wiped into the plates lower etched areas (those marks drawn

by the artist) while the magenta and yellow was rolled over its surface. A problem that

occurs with using some colours on zinc is called ‘grey out’, where a chemical reaction of

pigment to metal makes colours dull and lifeless. This has been overcome by using a very

soft roller to apply ink into the etched lines and a very hard one to remove that ink from

the surface prior to relief rolling the magenta and yellow. In this way I printed the image

without using a traditional scrim, or tarlatan wipe that seems to encourage ‘grey out’.

Barbara Rae RA

Proof 1

60

Proof 3 BAT

61

This is Me

Etching on Somerset (soft white) paper 300 gsm

(Versions 1 & 3: 37 cm x 24 cm, BAT: 23 cm x 17.5 cm)

For this exhibition I have decided to work strictly within the print medium. I have not

used my usual sketches to work out content, composition, colour, size etc. and to

decide the number and breakdown of plates. I have made a single plate etching and

worked directly onto a plate using hard ground. The subject is a self-portrait (my first)

and the first version was really a sketch to help me decide how I would approach

the final print. Having etched, printed and reviewed it, I started again modifying my

approach a little. I then made a third and fourth start before I was happy that I had a

plate I could continue with. The fourth image was only half the size of the first three. I

then continued to work on the plate using a drypoint needle, burnisher and scraper to

finalise my image.

Robert Russell

Version 1

62

Version 3

BAT

63

Right at My Feet - and When Did You Get Here, Snail?

Lithograph on Fabriano Rosaspina Avorio paper 300 gsm

(47 cm x 32 cm)

“Right at my feet - and when did you get here, snail?” – Kobayashi Issa. (1763-1828)

How did my idea develop from my imagination and transform into a print? Sometimes

it can be difficult to describe the process when at the end a result can appear as if

from nowhere. The snail delicate and fragile, moves methodically from A to B, the idea

moves to a drawing and from there to a plate and then to ink and paper. And here,

a wander, a few diversions and a happy accident…until almost unnoticed the print

arrives.

Katherine Van Uytrecht

Proof 1

64

Proof 10 BAT

65

Norman Ackroyd RA b. 1938 [UK]

Norman Ackroyd attended the Leeds College of Art followed by the Royal College of

Art in London prior to being elected Royal Academician in 1990. He currently lectures

extensively in both the UK and USA.

Painting in a range of media, but most comfortable with etching, he is one of Britain’s

pioneering contemporary printmakers.

Born in Leeds, his love of landscape was nurtured on long boyhood bicycle rides in the

Yorkshire Dales. ‘The things that stirred me, I wanted to get to the root of’ and in doing

so, he will take ink, plate and acid into the field. The plate can be worked on directly,

the acid painted on as if a watercolour, and the ‘bite’ stopped by a quick rinse in a

stream or a wipe on the wet grass, giving a freedom and immediacy through which he

produces truly captivating images.

His work is exhibited in major art galleries and Institutions worldwide, as well as many

private commissions.

Gerard Cox b. 1954

Gerard Cox graduated from National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 1979 and

went to Düsseldorf Art Academy for a Post Graduate Sculpture year. In 1983 he had

his first solo exhibition Sculptures in the Project Arts Centre Gallery, Dublin and won

the Guinness Peat Aviation Award for Emerging Artists. Since then he has exhibited

sculpture in solo and group exhibitions in Ireland, England, Germany, Korea and Japan.

Gerard was a founder member of Sculpture in Context, a major International woodland

sculpture exhibition, based in Dublin, in 1985. He has completed public and private

commissions and participated in symposia in Ireland, Germany, Austria and Korea. In

1999 Gerard began making woodblock prints. He joined Graphic Studio Dublin in 2002

and continues to produce woodblock prints for group and solo exhibitions. Recently

Gerard began painting. In 2008 he held two solo exhibitions in Ireland and showed

paintings and prints in California and Poland.

Gráinne Cuffe b. 1957

Gráinne Cuffe graduated from Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology

in 1979. She joined the Black Church Print Studio and in 1984 went on to study

Lithogaphy at Tamarind Institute in New Mexico. Norman Ackroyd taught her etching

at Central St.Martins College of Art and Design, London 1987-1989. She also made

etchings in Milan at Graphico Uno. She is a Fulbright Scholarship winner.

Gráinne Cuffe was an organiser of the Gardens of Earthly Delight exhibition at the

Chester Beatty Library in 2005 and had an etching in that show. She is a regular

exhibitor at Graphic Studio Gallery and Original Print Gallery, Dublin. She has also

regularly exhibited with the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Royal Academy, London and

the London Original Print Fair. She has shown at Kenny Gallery, Galway with Graphic

Studio Dublin, summer 2008.

Biographies

68

Previous Spread:

Handle with Care

(Twelve successive states of a four plate soft ground etching and aquatint)

Ruth O’Donnell

Cliona Doyle b. 1968

Cliona Doyle was born in Dublin in 1968. She studied fine art at National College of Art

and Design, Dublin. She received an Honours Degree in fine art in 1991. Since then

Cliona has been a member of Graphic Studio Dublin and has exhibited widely at home

and abroad. Her work has been exhibited in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin,

Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin and the Royal

Hibernian Academy, Dublin. Her work is in many public and private collections. Cliona

is a board member of Graphic Studio Dublin and she teaches etching classes and

drawing workshops.

Niamh Flanagan b. 1979

Niamh Flanagan studied Fine Art Printmaking at the National College of Art and Design,

Dublin. She graduated in 2002 with a commended 1st Class Honours and is now a

member of Graphic Studio Dublin.

Her first solo show Dwellings of Mind and Space was held at The Printmakers Gallery,

Dublin in 2007. Following on from the success of this exhibition she has been invited to

take part in various forthcoming exhibitions including Graphic Studio Dublin at Centre

Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2009), and Collins Barracks, Dublin (2010). She has taken part

in residencies and exhibitions in Oslo, Poland, Slovenia, Cork, Donegal and Dublin.

Awards include Arts Council Mentorship Scheme, Travel and Training Award and a

grant from Culture Ireland. She currently works as Studio Assistant at Graphic Studio

Dublin.

Takahiko Hayashi b. 1961 [Japan]

Born in Gifu, Japan in 1961, received a BFA from Musashino Art University and an MFA

in printmaking from the National University of Fine Arts and Music in Tokyo. He had

over 130 solo shows in Japan, Germany and USA, and participated in many group

shows in many countries including one at Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin.

Selected public collections include: National Museum of Art Osaka, Museum of

Contemporary Art Tokyo, Osaka Contemporary Art Center, Museum of Modern

Art Shiga, Toyohashi City Museum of Art, Kurobe City Museum of Art, Musashino

Art University Museum & Library, Tokyo, Opera City Art Gallery, Japan. National Art

Gallery Queensland, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia, Portland Art Museum,

Oregon, USA. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, USA. The Library of Congress,

Washington DC, USA, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland.

Desmond Kenny b. 1956

Desmond began making art 22 years ago. He joined Graphic Studio Dublin in 2004.

He uses the term V.E. to denote a varied edition of prints. Each print can be subtly or

radically different in colour, titles may change, extra figures added as he sees fit. Each

print is a new creative act and is open to many possibilities. The only definitive act is his

signature and the edition size. This is outside normal printmaking practice where each

print is identical. His printmaking runs in tandem with his painting processes, where

his painting is subject to constant change until sold. He has always liked the story of

Bonnard repainting sections of his paintings, hanging in the Luxembourg, while the

guard was distracted by a friend. This process of printmaking may not appeal to many

but he cares less, making art is more important then appealing to the status quo.

69

Arno Kramer b. 1945 [Netherlands]

Arno Kramer is very interested in the development of contemporary drawing. He is

the curator of Into Drawing: Contemporary Dutch Drawings which was presented

in the Limerick City Gallery of Art in 2005 and traveled to five European countries.

In June 2008, he gave a lecture at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin called

Contemporary Drawing – Trend or Development?

Kramer’s has recently exhibited at IJlwegen, Nanky de Vreeze Tekeningen en Projecten,

Middelburg, NL (solo); Into landscape, Galway Arts Centre, Galway; Just Drawing,

RC de Ruimte, IJmuiden, NL ( also curator); DOUBLESTREAM, Kunstenlab, Deventer,

NL (solo); DOUBLESTREAM, De Fundatie, Heino/Wijhe, NL (solo); Teylers Museum,

Haarlem, NL; Dreamland, Kunstvereniging Diepenheim, Diepenheim, NL; Cavanacor

Gallery, Ballindrait, Lifford; Museum De Fundatie, Paleis aan de Blijmarkt, Zwolle, NL;

TOUCHES, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin (solo); Into landscape, Macroom Town Hall

Gallery; L’Homme Sucré, Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam, NL; Into landscape, Sligo Art

Gallery; NOG collection, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, NL and Everywhere is Here, West

Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen (solo)

Brian Lalor b. 1941

Brian Lalor, artist and writer, has been variously, architect, archaeologist, lecturer and

editor. His prints are concerned with landscape and the impact of a human presence

on the land. He has had twenty-two solo exhibitions in Europe, North America and the

Middle East, and is the author of seventeen books on travel and architecture. He is

currently researching the history of fine art printmaking in Ireland to celebrate Graphic

Studio Dublin’s fiftieth anniversary in 2010, and illustrating with woodcuts, poems by

A.E. Housman and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Brian Lawlor joined Graphic Studio Dublin in 1991 and was Chairman 2005-2008

during the purchase of Distillery House, and Revelation (2008). He conceived and

curated Artist’s Proof (2009). His prints are in public and private collections around the

world.

Jennifer Lane b. 1952

Jennifer Lane studied at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology in the

early 1970’s and joined Graphic Studio Dublin shortly afterwards. She now specialises

in woodblock printing and has exhibited widely, including the Bradford International

Print Biennale 1984, joint exhibition with Carmel Benson in the Grafton Gallery 1986,

Print Biennale in Ljubljana 1993, joint exhibition with James McCreary in Graphic Studio

Gallery 1993, solo exhibition in Graphic Studio Gallery 2001. She has also exhibited

on many occasions with the Royal Hibernian Academy and her images are included

in many large collections, including those of the Office of Public Works, the Irish

Management Institute, Bank of Ireland and other State and corporate collections.

70

Stephen Lawlor b. 1958

Born in Dublin 1958, from 1980-83 he studied Visual Communication at the National

College of Art and Design, Dublin. In 1984 joined Graphic Studio Dublin and started

working as a printmaker in etching and lithography. He worked over the following

years with many artists and developed a wide range of skills, knowledge and technical

expertise.

From 1989-1991 he lectured in life drawing at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design &

Technology. From 1991-1996 he lectured in printmaking at DLIADT. From 1991-2001

he established Artemis to distribute prints throughout Ireland and develop awareness

and an income for artists involved. This included exhibitions at venues including Model

& Nyland Museum, Sligo, West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Yello Gallery, Kinsale,

The Vanguard Gallery, Cork and the Kenny Gallery, Galway, among many others.

In 1998 he joined the board of Graphic Studio Dublin and in that same year was one of

the principal initiators and co-ordinators of Art Into Art at the National Gallery of Ireland.

In 2001 he was elected Chairman of Graphic Studio Dublin and remained in that role

until 2005. In 2002 he was fully responsible for initiating and developing Holy Show

in association with the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. He is one of Ireland’s leading

printmakers and his work is in collections worldwide. He has also developed a growing

reputation as a painter and sculptor. Stephen is represented in Dublin by Hillsboro Fine

Art and Graphic Studio Gallery in Dublin. He works and lives in Dublin.

Elaine Leader b. 1970

Born in Dublin, Elaine Leader graduated from the College of Marketing and Design in

1995 and became a member of the Black Church Print Studio in the same year.

Selected Exhibitions include Milestones, OPW (2007); Insideout, Graphic Studio

Gallery 2006; Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibitions, Gardens of Earthly Delight,

Chester Beatty Library (2005); Hand Pulled Prints, San Antonio (2004); Contemporary

Irish Prints, The Gallery of Graphic Art, New York (2004); Grafiska Sallskaet, Stockholm

(2002), Ireland France, Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris (2001).

Awards include Arts Council Travel Awards (2000 & 1996); Royal Hibernian Academy

Annual Print Award (1998); Arts Council Arts Flights (2001, 1997 1994); Arts Council

Studio Award (1996); Arts Council Materials Grant (1996) as well as Office of Public

Works Per Cent for Art Scheme (2001), commission for the National Library of Ireland,

Dublin.

Public and Corporate Collections include National Library of Ireland, Royal Hibernian

Academy Collection, AIB, Office of Public Works, Dublin Institute of Technology, Intel,

KPMG, Dublin Castle, Office of the Ombudsman, Jury’s Hotel Group and the Irish

Medical Organisation.

71

Christopher Le Brun RA b. 1951

Christopher Mark Le Brun was born in Portsmouth in 1951.

He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art (DFA) in London from 1970-74 and at

Chelsea School of Art (MA) from 1974-75.

Le Brun has exhibited in many significant surveys of international art, including Nuova

Immagine, Milan (1981), Zeitgeist, Berlin (1982), and Avant-garde in the Eighties, Los

Angeles (1987). Most recently he was included in Contemporary Voices, Museum of

Modern Art New York (2005).

He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1996 and in 2000 became the Academy’s first

Professor of Drawing.

Le Brun is a former trustee of the Tate, the National Gallery of England, and the Dulwich

Picture Gallery. He is currently a trustee of the Prince’s Drawing School and a member

of the Council of the Royal Academy.

Le Brun is an experienced printmaker working in etching, lithography, woodcut and

monotype. He has had long term collaborations with Peter Kosowicz and Simon

Marsh of the former Hope Sufferance Press as well as Paragon Press and Paupers

Press in London, Garner and Richard Tullis in Santa Barbara, and Michael Woolworth

Publications in Paris.

Notable publications include Seven Lithographs (1989), 50 Etchings (1990), Four Riders

(1993), Wagner (1994), Motif Light (1998), Paris Lithographs (2000), Fifty Etchings (2005).

He is married to the painter Charlotte Verity. They have three children. He lives and

works in London and Suffolk.

Sharon Lee b.1978

Born in Galway in 1978. She studied Fine Art Printmaking at the National College

of Art and Design, Dublin and the Academy of Fine Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia. She

graduated in 2003 with a first class honours degree, receiving a Graphic Studio Dublin

Graduate Award and has been a member since. In 2008 she completed the Master

Printer Programme at Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Recent exhibitions

include the Graphic Studio Dublin collaboration, Revelation at the National Gallery of

Ireland (2008). She is currently Studio Assistant - Lithography at Graphic Studio Dublin.

72

David Lilburn b.1950

David Lilburn is an artist, whose current work predominantly involves the graphic

processes of drawing and printmaking. He studied history and political science at Trinity

College Dublin, (MA); lithography at the Scuole D’Arte, Urbino, and art and design at

Limerick School of Art and Design, (Dip. AD), where he taught for a number of years.

His recent commissions include: In Medias Res, for the James Joyce Ulysses

Exhibition, National Library of Ireland, 2004. The Courthouse Maps, and Frieze,

two commissions for Limerick County Council, 2002/2003. Coastline, for the Irish

Pavilion, Expo, Hamburg, 2000. A Map for City Hall, Millennium Project 2000, Dublin

Corporation. At IMPACT 3 in Cape Town he presented Urbs Antiqua Fuit Studisque

Asperrima in Causa Belli - (Re)Presenting the City (in Print).

His recent printmaking awards include: First prize, “Impressions”, open print award,

Galway, Ireland, 2004. “Michael Byrne Award for Printmakers”, administered by the Arts

Council of Ireland, 2002. “Mary Farl Powers Printmaking Award”, 2000, Arts Council of

Ireland, 2001. First prize, Second Limerick Mini-Print Exhibition, 2000.

Lilburn has works in numerous public collections, including the Office of Public

Works, Ireland; the University of Limerick; the National Self-Portrait Collection; the

National Collection of Artists Books, National College of Art and Design; the National

Collection of Contemporary Drawing, LCGA; the Palazzo della Penna, Perugia; the

National University of Ireland, Cork; the Dublin Corporation; AIB; Guinness; MIC,

Limerick; the Limerick Corporation; the Shannon Development Company; and the

Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork, Ireland. He has recently been invited to take part

in the 7th International Biennial of Contemporary Engraving, Museum of Modern and

Contemporary art, Liège, Belgium. March-May, 2009.

James McCreary b. 1944

James McCreary was born in Dublin in 1944. He worked at Harry Clarke’s stained

glass studio between 1960-1963. From 1964-1978 he worked as a steel erector for

Smith & Pearson’s structural engineering works. In 1973 he joined Graphic Studio

Dublin, studying etching and lithography. He became Studio Manager in 1980. With

Mary Farl Powers he set-up the Visiting Artists’ Programme, which introduced many

of Ireland’s leading artists to printmaking over the past twenty-five years. Also with

Mary Farl Powers and James O’Nolan he was responsible for the setting up of Graphic

Studio Gallery in Cope Street 1988. James McCreary was a board member of Graphic

Studio Dublin (1989-2000), and a committee member (1975-2004). In 2004 he left his

position as Studio Manager in order to concentrate solely on his own work. In 2005 he

was invited to become a member of Áosdana.

Mary Modeen b. 1953 [USA]

Mary Modeen is an American-born artist/printmaker of Scandinavian and Native

American (Chippewa/Cree) descent. Since 1989 she has resided in Scotland where

she has taught at the University of Dundee, and is currently the Course Director for

Art, Philosophy and Contemporary Practices. She has exhibited worldwide and had

many international residencies (including New Zealand, Australia, Northern Ireland).

She combines studio practice with writing; two recent books are This Place Called

Home, by Manx National Heritage (2006), and Remembered Places (2007) by Ballarat

Fine Art Gallery of Victoria, Australia. She is interested in traditional folklife, local history

and contemporary art in island cultures, both literal and metaphorical. In work ranging

from the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Scotland and New Zealand as physical islands,

and Native American/First Nation Canadian, Maori, and Basque peoples as indigenous

cultures—which are effectively islands marked by distinctive characteristics from

surrounding and predominating communities—she has been examining the interplay

between memory, cultural identities and art, combining creative practice with critical

writing.

73

Niall Naessens b. 1961

Niall Naessens was born in Dublin in 1961. He attended the National College of Art

and Design 1978-1983. He studied etching at Graphic Studio Dublin 1983-1986. He

worked in London from 1986-1990. He was artist in residence in City Arts Centre,

Dublin, from 1991-1993. From 1991 to 2006 he worked as a professional printmaker

at Graphic Studio Dublin. In 2004 he moved to Brandon in Kerry and has set up his

studio there with a view to concentrating more on painting. He was a board member of

Graphic Studio Dublin from 2001 to 2006. In 2007 he set up Cló Cill Rialaig which he is

running on behalf of the Cill Rialaig Project in Ballinskelligs, Co. Kerry.

Lars Nyberg b. 1956 [Sweden]

Nyberg attended the Royal University College of Fine Arts, Stockholm (1978 – 1983).

He has visited and worked at Graphic Studio Dublin for the past fifteen years. He

specialises in drypoint and he exhibits frequently in Sweden and Ireland. His most

recent exhibition in Ireland was a two person show with James McCreary at Graphic

Studio Gallery in 2007.

His work is held in international collections including The Museum of Modern Art

Stockholm, The British Museum, London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,

and the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.

Nyberg has been awarded grants from The Swedish Visual Arts Fund, IASPIS,

International Artists Studio Program in Sweden and The Royal Academy of Fine Art

in Stockholm. He has been artist-in-residence a number of times at Ballinglen Arts

Foundation in Ballycastle, Co. Mayo, Ireland.

Ruth O’Donnell b. 1952

Galway born artist Ruth O’Donnell studied at University College Galway from 1969

to 1972 and at the Institut Saint Luc in Brussels from 1986 to 1990. She has been a

member of Graphic Studio Dublin since 1991 and between 1996 and 2000 was also a

member of Artichoke Print Studio, London.

In her still life prints she works in series, exploring the expressive and formal aspects of

the genre. Starting from diary-like sketchbooks and idea based working drawings, she

reworks the imagery in compositions where more abstract considerations are taken

into account, such as the relationship of pattern and form, repetition and variation.

Tom Phelan b. 1970

Tom Phelan was born in Dublin and was educated at Blackrock College and Dun

Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology. In 1997 he was awarded one of

nine international scholarships in Graphic Arts at Il Bisonte, Florence, Italy by S.D.

Aerospace Design, Tokyo, Japan. He has been a member of Graphic Studio Dublin

since 1992 and has worked as an editioning printmaker and technician with artists

such as; Louis Le Brocquy, A.R. Penck, Michael Farrell, Tony O’Malley, Felim Egan and

Barry Flanagan.

From 2003 to 2007 he was a master printer and Studio Manager of Graphic Studio

Dublin. He has exhibited extensively in Europe, Asia and North America. In 2006/07

he showed his most recent work at Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin and at the

Konstnärernas Hus in Stockholm, Sweden in two solo shows. He currently lives and

works in Vienna, Austria.

74

Barbara Rae RA b. 1943 [Scotland]

Barbara Rae studied at Edinburgh College of Art in the nineteen sixties, was awarded a

post graduate year and a travelling scholarship.

After teaching in Edinburgh Schools and Aberdeen College, Rae joined the staff of the

painting department of the Glasgow School of Art in 1975. She taught there until 1996.

Thereafter Rae traveled extensively to Europe, Japan, South Africa and USA. Several

exhibitions showed the results of her travels.

Her work can be found in many public, corporate and private collections. Honours

and affiliations include, being elected to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1992, Member,

the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland from 1995 to 2004. Elected to the Royal

Academy in 1996, and awarded a CBE in 1999. In this decade awarded an Honorary

Fellowship of the Royal College of Art, and Honorary Doctorates from both Napier

University and Aberdeen University.

Robert Russell b.1960

Born in Dublin, Robert Russell attended Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design &

Technology from 1979. He specialised in sculpture, but also worked in print and painting,

winning the Taylor Art Competition for painting in 1980. He received the Alfred Beit Award

and the Norah McGuinness Award before graduating in 1983.

Russell is Studio Director at Graphic Studio Dublin, and has been a member since 1988.

In 1999 the Chester Beatty Library commissioned him to make an etching, a woodcut,

and an engraving to demonstrate printmaking techniques for a video displayed in the

library. They also acquired one of his mezzotints for their permanent collection. Exhibitions

include a solo show at Graphic Studio Gallery, Revelation and Art into Art at the National

Gallery of Ireland, Gardens of Earthly Delight and Holy Show at the Chester Beatty Library,

Ireland France Print Exchange, Paris, and RHA Banquet Show as guest of Patrick Hickey.

Katherine Van Uytrecht b. 1980

Van Uytrecht was born in 1980 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She studied

Printmaking at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town where

she graduated in 2002.

After graduating, Van Uytrecht moved from South Africa to Dublin. Since she joined

Graphic Studio Dublin in 2004 she has been editioning prints for Graphic Studio Dublin,

Stoney Road Press and privately for other artists and members. She has exhibited

in various group shows in Ireland, Poland and South Africa. She is currently Studio

Assistant at Graphic Studio Dublin.

75

Aquatint: An intaglio technique used to produce tones. Fine rosin

dust is applied to a metal plate, which is then heated until the rosin

melts and adheres. When etched to various depths, the rosin acts

as a ground allowing the acid to bite only the spaces between the

particles thus producing a variety of tones. Applying sprayed paint or varnish to the

plate, which acts as the ground, can also make aquatints.

BAT or Bon a tirer: A French term meaning ‘good to pull’. When the image has been

finalised through proofing, the final proof is marked BAT and signed by the artist. The

BAT is then used as a reference when printing the full edition.

Bitumen: Bitumen is diluted in white spirit and applied to the back of the plate to

protect it while in the acid. It is also used as a stop-out on the front of the plate to

protect some areas of the image from acid while other areas are been bitten.

Burin: Used predominantly by engravers, but also by relief

printmakers in making woodcuts. Its older English name, still often

used, is graver. The burin consists of a rounded handle shaped

like a mushroom, and a tempered steel shaft, coming from the handle at an angle, and

ending in a very sharp cutting face.

Burnisher: A polished steel tool, usually curved, which is used to

smooth a metal plate surface or to lighten a tonal area in mezzotint

or aquatint. A burnisher is often used in conjunction with a scraper.

Chine collée: A French term for thin paper, which is glued or collaged to a heavier

backing sheet of paper.

Copper plate: Copper is used in sheet form for intaglio printing.

Copper sulphate (CuSO4): A solution of copper sulphate, salt and a weak acidifier can

be used to etch metal plates.

Degreasing: The removal of grease from the surface of a metal plate using ammonia

and whiting or other solutions so that grounds will adhere properly.

Glossary

76

Dry point: An intaglio technique where a hard point called a dry

point needle is used to draw on a metal or plastic plate.

Edition: The total number of prints of an image pulled from the plate or plates. Each

print in an edition is numbered. 5/40 would be the 5th print from an edition of forty. A

limited number of artist’s proofs may also be pulled, but not more than 10% of the total

edition, and these are marked A/P.

Engraving: An intaglio technique where the image is cut into the

surface of the plate or block using a burin or graver.

Etching: An intaglio technique where the plate is covered with a

ground, the ground is partially removed, and the exposed areas are

bitten with acid. The lines and tones become indented beneath the

surface of the plate. The ink is held by the indentations and transferred under pressure

to the paper.

Fabriano: The trade name of an Italian printing paper. Fabriano art paper has been in

production since the 13th century,

Gampi paper: A Japanese paper made from the inner bark of the Gampi plant. In

Japanese paper making Gampi was the earliest and is considered to be the noblest

fibre, noted for its richness, dignity and longevity. It has an exquisite natural sheen,

and is often made into very thin tissues used in chine collée printmaking. Gampi has a

natural ‘sized’ finish that does not bleed when written or painted on.

Grey out: When printing intaglio plates the pigment can react with the metal causing

the colour to become dull and lifeless. This is more likely to happen with grey metals

such as zinc and aluminium.

Ground: Any material that is used to protect a plate from acid. There are a variety of

grounds, each one applied to the plate to produce a different effect. Types of ground

include hard ground, soft ground, and white ground.

Ferric chloride (FeCL3): A corrosive salt also known as perchloride of iron. It is used to

etch copper, diluted in water, and with some additives to etch zinc.

Foul bite: When an intaglio plate is being etched in acid the ground can begin to

break down allowing the plate to be etched in unwanted areas. The foul bite can

either be removed from the plate by scraping and burnishing although it is sometimes

incorporated into the image.

Hahnemühle: The trade name of a high grade German etching paper. Hahnemühle

papers have been in production since the 15th century.

Hand wiped: After the application of ink to an intaglio print, the

excess ink must then be wiped off, usually with fabric or paper. The

palm of the hand is sometimes used to wipe the plate.

Hard ground: A mixture of wax and bitumen used to coat an etching plate, as an acid

resist.

Intaglio: From the Italian to incise and engrave a design cut into a surface.

Intaglio print: A print from an incised surface where the ink lies in the incisions and

not on the surface. Examples of this technique are: drypoint, engraving, mezzotint and

etching which includes aquatint, soft ground and hard ground.

Japanese paper: The art of papermaking was brought to Japan in 610 AD by

Buddhist monks who produced it for writing sutras. By the year 800, Japan’s skills

in papermaking were unrivalled, and from these ancient beginnings have come

papers unbelievable in their range of colour, texture and design. It was not until the

13th century that knowledge of papermaking reached Europe—600 years after the

Japanese had begun to produce it. It is highly prized by fine art printmakers.

Line etching: An intaglio technique where a line is produced by

drawing the image into a hard ground using an etching needle.

The plate surface exposed by the needle is then etched in acid.

Lithograph: Derived from the Greek words for stone (lithos) and

drawing (graphos). This technique was invented in 1798/9 by Alois

Senefelder in Bavaria based on the antipathy of grease and water.

A lithographic stone is used as the plate, or increasingly zinc and aluminium. It is the

basis for today’s commercial printing methods.

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Lithographic crayon: A crayon with a waxy, water resistant quality. It can be drawn

onto a lithography stone, and will repel water.

Litho stone: The limestone that is used within the lithography technique. It is only

found in Bavaria, due to the unique geology of that European location. Thus there are

finite supplies of litho stones worldwide.

Master plate: When more than one plate is used, the plate which contains the key

elements of drawing which are then transferred to other plates is called the master

plate or key plate.

Matrix: The printing surface or plate is sometimes referred to as the matrix. It may be

stone, metal, wood, linoleum, rubber, glass, card, paper or stretched textile screen.

Mezzotint: From the Italian word mezzotinto, it is an engraving

technique which was invented in 1642, whereby the metal plate

is indented by rocking a toothed metal tool over its entire surface.

Each tiny tooth pit will carry ink and if inked at this stage the print would be entirely

black. The indentations are gradually burnished to reduce the ink holding pits so an

infinite number of tones can be created from solid black to pure white (where the plate

is made entirely smooth so can hold no ink).

Nitric acid (HNO3): An acid used to etch copper, zinc, and steel, diluted in water.

Original print: A print designed and printed by an artist or under artist supervision. The

original print is the first manifestation of the image and not a reproduction. An original

print is one in which the artist intended the work to be realized by creative printed

means.

Perchloride of iron: See ferric chloride (FeCL3).

Photo-intaglio/Photo-etching: Another name for photogravure.

Invented in 1879 by Karl Klic. A copper plate was covered by rosin

powder and heated. A sheet of bichromated gelatin tissue was laid

on top and exposed with a positive transparency. Light hardened the gelatin variably

giving an acid resist that could then be etched. Today artists often use a photopolymer

plastic (which is light sensitive), and are applied to a backing of metal or plastic. They

are exposed to an image and then etched using traditional intaglio techniques.

Pitting: See foul bite.

Plate: The matrix that holds the inked design in a variety of printmaking processes.

The plate can be metal, wood, linoleum, rubber, glass, card, paper, stone or stretched

textile screen.

Plate tone: A feint tone produced by the residue of ink which remains on the clear

areas of a plate and which is transferred to the paper when printed. Plate tone can be

controlled and used very effectively as an element in the design of a print.

Proof: A preliminary print pulled to examine the progress of the work at successive

stages. See also State proof.

Proofing: Proofing is the process of pulling a proof. Proofs are pulled to check colour,

registration, weight of ink impression, and how the print looks on different papers.

Reduction method: A relief print technique whereby a single block is reduced and

printed in stages to produce a colour print.

Relief printing: A process in which the image to be printed is

created in relief. Unwanted areas are cut away and the image area

is left in relief so that when the ink charged roller is passed over

the block only the areas in relief receive ink. Woodcut, wood engraving and linocut are

examples of relief printing.

Relief roll up: The inking of a relief printing block or in some cases an intaglio plate.

After an intaglio plate has been inked and the surface ink wiped away leaving only

the ink in the incisions, a different colour ink can then be rolled on the surface thus

combining intaglio and relief printing techniques.

Roll up: To roll ink onto the surface of a plate or block.

Rosin: A natural tree resin which is used in powdered form as a resist ground to

produce aquatints.

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Sugar lift: An intaglio technique which allows positive marks to be made in ground.

Sugar is dissolved in water with some colouring and a small amount of soap. The sugar

mixture is painted onto the plate and when dry the whole plate is covered in a liquid

ground. The plate is immersed in hot water and the sugar dissolves and lifts away

exposing the plate. Aquatint is then added and the plate is etched.

Tusche: Ink emulsion that is made in liquid, paste or stick form.

It is used to draw on a lithographic stone or plate, or for washes

when diluted in distilled water.

Woodcut: Also woodblock print. A print taken from a relief block of

wood lengthways with the grain. When the wood is cut crossgrain

it is called wood engraving. See also relief printing.

Zinc plate: Zinc is used in sheet form for both intaglio printing and lithography.

Roulette: A steel engraving tool with a small spiked drum or

wheel which is used to make a dotted texture directly or through

a ground onto an intaglio plate. The roulette is sometimes used to

repair a worn aquatint during printing.

Scraper: A sharp tool, usually triangular in section and with a

pointed end, used in intaglio, engraving and mezzotint.

Scrim: Refers to tarlatan, a fabric used for wiping intaglio plates.

Sekishu: A thin Japanese paper.

Soft ground: Similar to hard ground but with added grease.

Paper is placed over a plate prepared with soft ground and then

drawn onto. The ground transfers to the back of the paper under

the pressure of the drawing tool exposing the copper beneath which is then etched.

Objects can also be pressed onto the soft ground surface creating an imprint which is

then etched.

Spit biting: A method used to etch small areas of a plate. Spit is

applied to the plate and acid dropped on. The acid will not spread.

Gum Arabic can also be used with nitric acid. Acid can also be

dropped or painted directly onto a wet or dry plate for different effects.

State proof or stage proof: A proof is taken each time work is done to a plate to

check progress. State proofs are of great interest to historians and collectors.

Stop-out: A liquid acid resist which is used to stop selected areas on a plate from

further etching by acid while allowing other areas to be etched further. Thinned bitumen

or shellac based straw hat varnish can be used.

Straw-hat varnish: Shellac mixed with black pigment used as stop-out in etching.

Straw-hat varnish was originally made to waterproof hats.

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Next Page:

Desert Star (Detail)

Gerard Cox

Inside back cover:

This is Me (Detail)

Robert Russell

Documents

Arist's Proof A/P