Click on an image to see an enlarged version.
Over the past couple of years I have started to take a renewed interest in landscape. I have always walked and taken photographs, but as I was developing the ideas for the large black and white woodcuts I realised how much I wanted to draw light. I began to look at the way sunlight shimmered through trees and how it created depth and volume by reflecting off surfaces. I have tried to use these properties to create atmospheric images.
This etching means a great deal to me. I saw these trees on a walk through Whirlowdale, in Sheffield, when my mum was very ill.
The plate has been through dozens of different states, but I kept on working at it because I wanted
the plate to be as good as I could make it as my mum had always liked my landscape work. I wore the
plate out and built it up again until I was satisfied with the results.
A view towards Bowley and Whalley Nab in Lancashire. I have been spending more time over in Lancashire lately, in the
idyllic village of Clayton-le-Moors, where I was brought up.
This image also comes from the woods at Whirlowdale. I decided to use the long thin format
of the plate so that I could get a sense of the height of the trees and their grandeur.
My friend Damian and I walked up from Eyam towards William Hill (also a good friend of my dad's). We
took a breather as we came out of the woods and I glanced back. I was so pleased to see the light
hitting the beech trees I decided I had to make an etching of it.
I noticed these rocks after the opening of Access Land.
A grainy aquatint, showing the grasses catching car headlights.
These trees were reflected in a river between Dronfield and Chesterfield. It is a lovely area that I see as
I'm driving to work. I've been stopping off on the way home for the past two years
to explore the area and make it feel my own.
When I decided to do some landscape etching I set myself the challenge of only using 100mm x 150mm plates. This was partly for cost, so I wouldn't be worried if I experimented a little too much, and partly for speed, so I could develop the images faster. I had used the same idea when I did the printing course at Central, lots of small figure drawings, so I could expand my etching techniques and understanding of the medium.
A start at landscape etchings. I think that this is a lovely soft plate.
From a walk along Whalley Nab. The aquatints are so soft on this plate.
I was very pleased with the atmosphere I created.
This place is three miles from where I live. I parked the car for a walk right next to this
gate near Ringinglow. I later found out that two other artist friends had painted the gate as well.
These etchings are 35mm by 85mm, just about comfortable to handle when printing. Any smaller and I
would be dropping them all of the time I'm wiping the edges of the plates, rather than just most of the time.
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