|
Additional
Information about the Print
Lindsay came from a family important in the development of art in Australia;
he was one of five children who all, grew up to be practising artists.
Initially he worked as an illustrator for newspapers and magazines,
etching in his spare time. But a successful exhibition of his etchings in 1907
gave him the confidence to abandon a journalistic career to work fulltime
as a creative artist.
He would be the first President of the Australian
Painter-Etchers’ Society when it was founded in 1921,
but it is as a wood engraver that he is most collected in Britain.
The Australian artist chanced on a set of wood engraving tools
on a visit to London in 1910 and began to engrave on boxwood.
Of his technique in the medium he wrote
“…I prove as I go, building up my design…bit by bit…my chief care
is to establish a true graver cut, keep its drawing quality and to
preserve the intervening blacks.”
Wood engraving is another relief process.
Whereas woodcut generally creates a black line (and is printed from
a plank cut following the grain of the tree), wood engraving results
in a white line.
The artist cuts his design with a burin into the surface of a boxwood
block, which has been cut ‘end-grain’ (that is against/crossing the grain)
to achieve a really hard surface.
Ink is applied to the surface but does not go into the engraved lines,
so that in the resulting impression the lines ‘print’ as ‘white’; actually
the natural white of the paper showing against the printed black ground.
Wood engravings can be printed on a platen press, but also by hand
pressure, placing damp paper over the inked block and rubbing with the
back of a spoon.
For more information, and further examples of wood engravings and Relief forms of printmaking, please explore the Wood Engraving pages in the Techniques section of this website. |
