Elaine d'Esterre

Feminist Visual Artist – Paintings, Mixed Media and Etchings

Rock Face 1, 2014

Etching and Metallic leaf (update)

In my last blog I described various attempts at tackling copper leaf combined with intaglio.  I thought that the process would be similar to applying chine colle to the image. However it was quite a tricky process handling the elusive leaf and its adherence to the the paper. At first the metallic copper leaf adhered to the zinc plate and so I had to make sure that it stuck and dried to the printmaking paper before printing onto its surface. However a chine colle process would have been successful if the plate was a non – metallic collagraph.

First attempt

Rock Face 1, 2014

Rock Face 1, 2014, intaglio and copper leaf 10×25 cm

Second attempt

Rock Face 1, 2014

Rock Face 1, 2014, intaglio and copper leaf 10×25 cm

The etched section of the second image was a ghost print.

First attempt

Etching with copper leaf proof

Second attempt

Rock Face 2, 2014, intaglio and copper leaf

Rock Face 2, 2014, intaglio and copper leaf 10×25 cm

The third image began as a mis-print because I had misjudged the register. I masked out most of the image and printed in the top right hand corner.

First attempt

Etching and copper leaf  proof

Second attempt

Rock Face 3, 2014, 10 x25 cm, intaglio and chine colle by Elaine d'Esterre

Rock Face 3, 2014, intaglio and chine colle 10×25 cm

l ‘m not to sure about the last image but I was surprised at how the combination of etching and copper leaf produced an antique look that reminded me of maps from the sixteenth century, as though the shapes resembled fragments of lost continents.  All the imperfections; torn edges, edges over lapping the plate embossed edge, decal and excess ink bleeding outside its boundary could have resembled an old parchment that may have been in an attic for a few centuries.

Author: elainedesterre

I have been producing oil paintings, mixed media, prints (etching), digital prints and drawings for many years travelling to the Australian outback and overseas for inspiration and further education. My formal education consists of a PhD in painting and a BA in printmaking and my artwork is represented in public and private collections. My purpose and ongoing challenge is to create a gender-balanced and environment-focused iconography within the Western canon of European oil painting. These themes find expression within imagery about time, memory and identity as well as in geomorphology of evolutionary and environmental significance.

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