Martin MARTIN
Photogravure etching
Narrative is everything. As symbolising animals we try, often in desperation, to seek meaning and purpose. There is always a reason, a history, a consequence, a tale… In my own art practice, landscape becomes a metaphor for the human condition. I’ve been image making in various forms since around the age of 13. More recently, this has been an exploration into photogravure, a printmaking process going back two hundred years. Starting with a photograph (in my case) there are about 20 or so separate steps in producing an etching. A steel plate less than a millimetre thick has a sensitive polymer surface which when exposed to sunlight or, in this case ultra-violet light, can be made to hold an image. The resulting intaglio etching plate, once inked, is then overlaid with thick, water-soaked paper and forced through a Harry Rochat etching press at great pressure in the print studio at Bath and Artists Printmakers of Larkhall, Bath. The paper is not the usual stuff manufactured from wood pulp which would disintegrate when wet, but exactly like old bank notes, made from cotton fabric. It’s made and hand finished in a paper mill which has been going since the 1700’s, St Cuthbert’s Mill, close to Wells in Somerset. This intricate process creates an image of great delicacy and tonal range, which ( I hope!) reveals itself as a print which engages and is of some worth.
- Email: [email protected]