David Row at OG for our last project of 2012

Whew ! We are all catching our breath here at OG after an intensive and awesome project with New York artist David Row. (Shown above in his snazzy 3-D glasses.) David arrived with some arrangements of his random linear shape drawings with ideas on how to layer his images. We prepared steel plates that Sue thought would be great for his series of etchings. Steel has a good deal of plate tone and an irregular surface–perfect for utilizing a little unpredictability in the printing process. We also made solar plate etchings and an incredible series of three copper aquatints. In 10 days we made nineteen editions with David!

There are six prints in his series of small steel plate etchings titled All in, Rougette, Inside Bet, Bonus, Odds, and Heat. They are printed on BFK and 17 1/2” x  20” and $950 a piece.

David created three large steel plate etchings titled High Roller, Aggregate, and Probability. They are 27”x 32 3/4” and $2100 each.

David and Sue worked tirelessly together on three multi-copperplate aquatint etchings titled Lightrap Yellow, Lightrap Red, and Lightrap Emerald. The prints are based on three glass sculptures of David’s shapes. The light and volume that these prints capture is striking, and was carefully created by step-etching and lots of steelwool sanding. They are printed on 27” x 32 3/4” paper and are $2200 each.

David made six solar plate etchings, three have color tone using chine colle and three are printed in black and white. They are titled All or Nothing, Blind Bet, and Hold Em, printed on 27” x 32 3/4” BFK paper and are $2000 for the color prints and $1800 for the black and white editions.

Please visit our website to view all of David’s amazing prints! We all worked so hard and couldn’t be more thrilled about the pieces that came out of this collaboration. 🙂

www.oehmegraphics.com

The Lightrap series of aquatint etchings required lots of planning–Sue made drawings of each plate for the pieces with notes on how long to etch each area, when and where to stop out the copper from the acid, and what colors to use. A very difficult process only the most skilled Master Printers could accomplish! (way to go Sue!)

Kristen and Julia where responsible for all the proofing and printing of David’s steel etchings. It took lots of color trials, and endlessly wiping plates! After printing a specific arrangement of shapes, we would discuss with David how to tweak a color or plate order to achieve a successful (and amazingly beautiful) print!

Our inking station was covered in ink throughout the project. Mixing colors constantly!

Kristen printing All In

A step in the printing process, just before it gets covered with another plate

Christie and David printing Blind Bet (Orange).
Christie was the chine colle master for this project! Chine colle literally means Chinese collage. Whenever a printer glues one paper to another using the press it is called “chine colle.” We used colored gampishi paper (made in Japan from willow bark) to create the colored tone on this image, which ironically mimics the solar plate color.

Julia printing the last layer onto Bonus

All In, 2012
steel plate etching
edition of 15
17 1/2” x 20”
$950

We love projects because the wall in the studio becomes a gallery everyday! The wall was constantly covered with gorgeous prints.

Printing the last layer on one of David’s bigger steel etchings. This one is titled Aggregate.

Sue lived at this little table! Here, she is carefully hand painting David’s image onto the plate to create the shape in the acid after aquatinting the copper plate.

Aquatints!
These plates are in the process of being etched in acid. Everything that is painted black (called asphaltum) acts as a resist to the acid (meaning that area will not hold tone when wiped with ink). The blue paint is acting as another layer of aquatint to create more depth in the image.

Sanding tone into the plate with steelwool, and acetate as a block out.

Hmmm…
Always thinking about ways to make it perfect!

The aquatinted plates are pieces of art themselves.

Wow! The aquatints are so delicate.

Lightrap Emerald, 2012
copper plate aquatint
edition of 15
27” x 32 3/4”
$2200

Sue helping David sign all his amazing prints! (then he had to ride to Denver in the snow!!!)

The morning after…
Starting to get the shop back in order and organizing the prints!

We had such a great time with David for the last project of 2012.
Please take a moment to see all the prints OG made with David:

www.oehmegraphics.com