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 A background to etching:  

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Traditionally the word ‘artist’ includes painters, draughtsmen, illustrators, sculptors and printmakers. An artist may just partake in one of these practices or any combination.

 

 As well as a painter, Andrew is a printmaker. Printmaking  includes monotype, screenprinting, lithography, relief and intaglio. All these disciplines are fascinating with unique possibilities quite unlike that of any drawn or painted mark. Never totally direct, there is usually an element of surprise to the process.

 

The prints displayed here are a combination of etching and aquatint. Both techniques are forms of intaglio printmaking. (Intaglio printing also includes engraving, mezzotint and drypoint).

 

Intaglio printmaking is the direct opposite to the relief printing process. You will be familiar with relief printing from school days – you probably made potato cuts or you may have advanced to linocuts (and stabbed your finger!). In relief printing the basic principal is that the ink stays on the raised surfaces of the printing surface. With intaglio printmaking the ink stays in the sunken parts of the printing surface.

 

(Intaglio: C17: from Italian, from intagliare to engrave, from tagliare to cut,  from Latin taliare)

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Editions, proofs and numbering:

 

Numbering. All limited edition prints should be numbered, with the first number being the impression number and the second number representing the total edition, thus 12/40 is impression number 12 from an edition of 40. The edition number does not include proofs, but only the total in the numbered edition.

Prints from plates are limited for various reasons. Either the plate will not give more than a certain number of perfect proofs, or the artist wishes to limit the number to ensure a rarity value or for personal reasons.

 

Working proofs are pulled before the edition in order to see what the print looks like at that stage of development, after which the artist may go back to the plate and change it. These proofs are often called ‘states’ and are usually numbered as such. There can be any number of states, depending upon how that particular artist works, but it is usually a small number and each one differs from the others as the image evolves.

 

Proofs of the final and complete state are known as Artist's Proofs or Trial Proofs. These are for the artist’s personal use. Artist’s proofs, often abbreviated to ’A/P’ can make up to 10% of the edition and are traditionally numbered in Roman numerals. The artist's proof is sometimes referred to by it's French épreuve d'artist (abbreviation E.A.). I usually mark my final working proof as a Trial Proof before printing Artist’s Proofs.

 

The Signature authenticates the print as genuine and original. Imperfect prints are destroyed.

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Andrew has been a Fellow of the RE (Royal Society of Painter-printmakers) since 2005    

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