Drypoint

“Le pont du Brooklyn”, Brooklyn Bridge Week, day 6 (Thursday)

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Even if I didn’t like the print, I’d be tempted to include one with this title. This is the first time this artist’s work will be seen on this blog. Jean Michel Mathieux-Marie (such a quintessentially French name) was born in 1947, and initially trained as an architect at the École Nationale Supérieure Des Beaux-Arts [National School of Fine Arts, reputed to be the best art school in France. As an aside, the Beaux-Arts (as it is called) was formed by the merger in 1793 of the Royal Academy of Architecture (founded 1671) and the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (founded 1648).] Within two years of graduating, he started learning drypoint engraving, which remains his preferred technique. Typical drypoint engraving (e.g. Martin Lewis) is done with a metal stylus on a soft copper plate. (Nowadays, apparently dental tools are among the more popular implements used.) Mathieux-Marie uses a diamond-tipped tool to engrave on a hard steel plate, which is unusual. It’s tough to find information on less well known contemporary artists like this, so this is all I know.

You may remember that drypoint is essentially a form of engraving using a fine needle or stylus, as opposed to traditional engraving, done with a broader gouge-like tool called a burin. Drypoint is much closer to drawing, which makes it especially attractive to artists who want to dabble in printmaking, and haven’t devoted considerable time to learning to use the burin.

I love this picture because of the angle from which the bridge is portrayed. Most pictures we’ve seen have been views along the bridge from on it. A couple have been side views. This is the only I’ve seen so far from below on the side. It has all of the texture of the Wengenroth prints we’ve looked at, plus the bottom surface of the bridge deck. In addition, we get to see the lower portion of the main towers. And don’t forget the texture of the clouds and the sky.

Le pont du Brooklyn (Drypoint, 2005)

Another Martin Lewis nocturnal scene–he really excels at this: week 11, day 4 (Tuesday)

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This is one of my favorite Martin Lewis prints. He does so well with the night scenes, especially in New York City. This one is set in Astoria, Queens–a neighborhood in which I lived while I was in grad school. The quality of the light, the shadows–and most of all the texture of the material of which the bridge is made. It all adds up to amazing atmosphere. The technique is drypoint, which as you may remember, is an engraving technique using a very fine stylus, which can produce very textured prints.

Arch, Midnight (Drypoint, 1930)

It’s snowing! A contemporary printmaker’s falling snow print: week 9, day 7 (Wednesday)

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I had a beautiful springy print picked out, and then it started to snow, and I decided I needed a snow print. Turns out there are tons of prints of fallen snow, on the ground and other surfaces, but very few of snow actually falling. It’s an interesting counterpoint to paintings, of which there are many excellent falling snow examples.

Helene Bautista is from Toulouse, France, and became a print artist around 2012. As a lesser known contemporary printmaker, I was unable to find a whole lot of information about her. No Wikipedia entry! She is fairly prolific, and employs a variety of different techniques, often together in the same print. In addition to this print, she has several other falling snow prints that I may share in the future, as the occasion and mood suit.

Check out her other prints:

https://www.instagram.com/bautistahelene/?hl=en

https://helenebautista.weebly.com/

Do you have any favorite pictures of falling snow? I won’t insist on prints from you, but I’d love to see examples of snow pix you love, whatever the medium.

Hiver (Winter, 2017, etching/drypoint/aquatint)

Armin Landeck–painstaking detail, different texture: week 8, day 3 (Monday)

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Amrin Landeck’s style might be classified in the same general family as the styles of Martin Lewis and Stow Wengenroth. Like those printmakers, his scenes are full of painstaking detail, yet the textures are different. Take a look at today’s print, “Approaching Storm, Manhattan”. The storm clouds not only have varying density of blackness, but the underlying texture is of many very fine lines. The brickwork on the tallest chimney is exquisitely detailed. The technique used was drypoint, a form of engraving using a very fine stylus, and generating abundant texture because the feathery copper residue displaced by the stylus remained attached to the side of the incision made by the stylus. This residue wears off quickly with multiple impressions, such that drypoint prints are often produced in very small editions, and differences between early and late impressions can often be quite notable. I am displaying an early and a late impression of this print, and you can see quite a different in the fine texture of both the storm clouds and the brickwork of the chimney.

Approaching storm, Manhattan (drypoint, 1937)

EARLY IMPESSION
LATE IMPRESSION

Martin Lewis and Shadows: week 7, Monday

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Martin Lewis, the printmaker who got me started on this enthusiasm, did a lot of interesting things with shadows. I think his many nocturnal scenes set in NYC are really his best work. Today’s print is focused on shadows as the sun is going down in midtown Manhattan. (This scene is apparently set at 34th St and Park Avenue, looking west.)

Lewis employs an interesting combination technique in this print: he creates background texture via an etching (acid) technique called sandpaper ground, but the picture is created by an engraving (sharp stylus) technique called drypoint. I’ll share more of Lewis’ shadow prints in the future.

Shadow Dance (1930)

Week 2 of share-a-print-a-day: Martin Lewis

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To round out my first week of share-a-print-each-day, I’m returning to the artist that started it all for me, Martin Lewis (1881-1962). Lewis was born in Australia, but emigrated to the US in his teens and settled here, finding various ways to support himself with his artistic talents until eventually succeeding financially as a serious artist in the heyday of print art in the US. Lewis was an ardent printmaker, experimenting with numerous different intaglio techniques including many variations on both engraving and etching. Today’s print was produced by drypoint, an engraving technique that allows very fine lines and detail at the expense of producing a plate that degrades after a fairly small number of prints. Drypoint plates rarely produce more than 25 or so high-quality impressions, often less, and there are often noticeable differences even a few impressions apart. Since it’s Saturday morning, I’m sharing a lovely morning scene in Manhattan titled Quarter to Nine, Saturday’s Children, illustrating people going to work on E. 34th St at Park Avenue on a Saturday morning. The title is derived from the nursery rhyme “Monday’s child is fair of face….” in which “Saturday’s child works hard for a living”.