by Lea, an etching
an early trial proof
a later colour trial proof, almost there
Lea – etching, 1983
image: 22.2 x 22.5 cm. (8.75″ x 8.8″)
Paper: 38 x 38 cm. (15″ x15″)
Here is one of my very early etchings from the time when I returned to printmaking. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I fell in love with printmaking in my last year at art school, too late to major in it, but left with the feeling that I wanted to return to it some day. The opportunity came much much later and of course, I had to spend time relearning the processes.
After deep etching this plate, I worked on numerous proofs, trying out different colours and various ways of inking it. I wrote many notes on the proofs about those processes. The top one is getting close to what I wanted, to my eye at the time, with the technique of intaglio wiping (the blues), then with a relief roll (red) over it. More colour trials were made, with the second image above getting very close. The final editioned version is shown last.
I’m not overly fond of how I designed the image and I now rather prefer the colours in the first one shown, but it’s an example of the process of learning technique before mastering the image along with it.
June 4, 2012 in Older Works, Printmaking, Printworks by Marja-Leena
It’s an elegant design and I like the way you adjusted the depth of the form.
I hope you’re enjoying having your family at home to stay for a while.
Susan, I appreciate your always positive comments! Daughter and granddaughters are here for the whole summer again, hopefully joined by son-in-law later – and yes, we are enjoying them. Can’t you tell with my less frequent blogging lately? They are out for a few hours so I managed to slip into the studio for a bit more searching through old works in the flat files.
Marja-Leena,
interesting to see the developing of the etching. I have a niece whose name is Lea, not look-alike at all, but who I often think, as we live quite far away from eachothers.
Ripsa, if I remember correctly, I think I chose the name Lea as a very slight nod to the Greek myth Leda and the Swan. I have a cousin In Finland with the name Lea, very much younger than I, and like all the family over there, much too far to see each other often.
Marja-Leena,
ahaa, it looks like a very passionate picture, indeed. Leda is not cold woman at all.
I wonder if you ever saw any works by Ina Colliander, she did mostly graphics in many different techniques. Her husband was a wrtier and they were from east, either from Isthmus or further, Inkeri, which is around St. Petersburg and ended up this side, in Finland.
They were orthodoxes, which made part of the content, but: Leda and Swan is also a mythical event. But more importantly, Colliander used similar gestus’s and habitus’s of persons, animals, houses, like you do in this picture. I came back to look at this one, because it looked familiar.
The couple have died long time ago, but the works exist.
Your way of handling etching is very skillfull, thinking, how rough the picture is, strong,even robust.
Ripsa, thanks for your kind words about this etching, which has not been a favourite of mine, being more of a technical exercise to learn the process. I do like it better now, years later, especially the top proof as I said.
Ina Colliander is new to me. I just searched her name and found quite a bit online, including numerous images of her work on the National Gallery of Finland site. She has worked mostly in woodcuts, it seems, and often favoured angels as subject matter. Interesting that my piece made you think of her!