Dance of the Stars

This image was inspired by Kandinsky’s painting “Several Circles”. I didn’t attempt to copy his image but to base my own idea on several circles in a field. I added my own interest in astronomy to transform the image into a star field dancing around in force fields.

This is a three plate etching/aquatint/destruction ground/collograph/engraving. The image size is 17-5/8 by 11-7/8 inches. There is no edition as yet but there are 17 color proofs printed with three stages of the plates. I wanted to explore this image using various color combinations during which I modified one or more of the plates. This produced an interesting variety of color proofs of which this is one example.

Dancers

This is a reprint of two plates that I created some years ago. The idea was to try to capture the motion of a ballerina in a single image rather than showing 4 ballerinas in different positions. Here I’ve captured four stages of the motion from the beginning to the end.

This is a three plate etching/aquatint/collograph. The image size is 6-3/4 by 4-11/16 inches. There is an edition of 6 as well as a total of 8 artist’s proofs of previous versions as follows:

1 - Dancers I in red/orange

1 – Dancers I in pastel red/orange

1 – Dancers I in blue/red

2 – Dancers I in brown/rose

1 – Dancers II in red/orange

1 – Dancers III

1 – Blue Dancers III

Moonrise

This image is the same as the image Sunrise except it is printed in different colors.

This is a two plate etching where the white of the paper provides the third color. The image size is 6 x 9 inches. There are presently only two artist’s proofs of this image.

Sunset

This image is based on an earlier series, called Sunrise over Greenbelt Lake, that I did some years ago. Both images are based on a photograph I took of Greenbelt Lake in Maryland. This image is smaller and reversed from the earlier work and was etched using different techniques. This is the first time that I have ever based a new image on an older image, but I wanted to see how the older image might look in a different form.

This is a three plate etching/lift ground/destruction ground. The image size is 6 x 9 inches. It was printed using Charbonelle inks which have a richer color than the previous versions. There is an edition of 5 with 4 artist’s proofs.

Sun Rising II

This is a small, simple subject that I used to develope the pointillist etching technique. Since I was concentrating more on the technique, I chose a simple subject with an astronomical feeling that comes from my interest in astronomy and space. I have been interested for many years in the pointillist technique developed by George Seurat in painting, but I could not think of how this would be implemented as an etching. I thought about it for many years before I began to see how I might be able to do it, but I needed to test my ideas.

This is a three plate aquatint. The image is 3 by 4-1/2 inches. Because I was experimenting with the technique, I did one stage to work out the process and a second stage to enhance the depth of color in the image. As a result, there are two editions of 5 each: Sun Rising I is the first stage and Sun Rising II is the second stage. This image is from the second stage.

Old Man in the Forest

This is another one of my etchings with an interesting history that I can't explain in this space. I have spent many happy hours hiking in the woods in several states. In some cases, the forests were very heavy and dense. Occasionally, you'd make a turn on the trail or enter a clearing and come across a huge old tree, one that was very old, maybe 100 years or more. They are the lords of the forest and I've always felt a deep reverence for these old trees. In this image, I've attempted to capture the majesty of this old giant nestled deep in the woods among its younger subjects.

This is a four plate etching and aquatint. The image is 8-7/8 by 11-11/16 inches. There is an edition of 4 plus 3 artist's proofs.

Madonna - YellowOrangeRed

This is my favorite subject of all of my etchings. It is a complex subject and was a complex project. It is one of my earlier etchings. The only way I can explain the title is to think of the pointillist painting by George Seurat, "The Grande Jatte"

(http://www.artchive.com/artchive/S/seurat/jatte.jpg.html).

In that painting, there is a Victorian couple in the foreground facing to the left. Imagine that image and the shape of the woman, but facing to the right. Then you can imagine what I see as the central subject of this image. That is a complicated and obscure explanation, but I can't think of any other way to express what I see in this abstract-geometric image.

This is a two plae etching/aquatint plus viscosity roll. It took me two years thinking about this before I realized that I had to have the second plate. The image is 14 by 17-3/4 inches. There is no edition but there are twelve monoprint versions: 5 are in two colors and 7 are three colors.