Fine Art Prints
Limited Edition and Open Edition Print Releases
Selected inmages from a photography archive go on to be made as analogue gravures.
During each season a limited edition print will be released and available to purchase.
NEW* P R I N T S H O P The latest release is available to buy here
Browse the gallery below to see more prints in the archive, I can make special orders, all enquiries welcome.
TIME RESPONSES :
The organic process of growing a wide body of work over time - draws on my interest and discovery of new motifs.
Adding to each series at intervals on a cyclical seasonal basis, means my work and ideas never become static.
PRINT PRACTICE :
"I love printmaking for the messy inky state you find yourself leading to the satisfaction of pulling a crisp clean impression pushed into paper. It transforms an image into something unique, an artefact. What's more is the joy of inking up and doing it over again" Bev Hayes
Print Portfolios
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Underland Series 2019 / 2020
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Web Land Series 2018 / 2020 archive
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Botanical Series 2019 / 2021
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Mid Winter Series 2019 / 2021
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La Gomera, Finca Series 2019
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Göta Älv 2021 / 2022
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Playing with Time Series 2021
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Elements of the Long Season I, II, III ( Pigment Prints )
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Elements of the Long Season IV 2022 ( 20:20 International Print Exchange )
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Elements of the Long Season VI 2023 - Artist Print sent to Etch Ink Art Gallery - Athens Printmaking Center
Latest Print Release
MORE ABOUT PHOTOPOLYMER GRAVURE
Traditional Photogravure comes from an old intaglio ´photo-mechanical´ printmaking process and mainly produced in the specialist printing industry on Rotogravure Press, to create a photographic image on paper.
It not exactly a photographic process in the traditional photo dark room sense, but it is derived from such methods first developed in early 19th century photography. Czech painter Karel Klíč in 1878 built on this technique, founded by Henry Fox Talbot's research into Photographic Engraving. Even historical lineage stems back from Nicéphore Niépce, Heliography method. Traditional Photogravure of today is a lengthy and toxic, staged process. It takes a lot of work to make a grained surface pattern on a metal plate, usually on copper. Careful exposure of a film positive on top of a light sensitive gelatin film. The results of which are permanently etched on the substrate. This plate can then be reproduced over and over, with a high level of detail and continuous tones, it resembles a grainy photographic print, but with a unique depth and quality of its own. The Alternative Photopolymer Gravure, that which artists photographers and printmakers are using a simpler contact print transfer process. It is considered `safer` or low toxic method of transfer onto a pre prepared substrate of metal coated with photo sensitive emulsion. The transfer of an image through a positive transparent film under ultra violet light. What makes it apealing is it's then developed in water and cured by light again to make it suitable for making multiple prints. This newer method has been adapted from industry's planographic printing process used commercially since the 80's. Over the last two decades It has been taken up by artists since then made even safer to work with since the 90's.. It can be used to produce fine detailed works or experimental in combination with other forms of printmaking. It gave me the means to take digital captures into hands on analogue printmaking. I felt more comfortable using this technique to translate my work this way and to consider my health and in turn be environmentally conscious. My first job working in film & darkroom lab developing prints for a photographic studio, around the time of when the digital technologies started to be more widely introduced. I made the decision to not use strong chemicals that I had used in college and in the photo lab. I had made a large photo etching on copper with a product called IMAGE ON, introduced to me by printmaking technicians and tutors at the Art Collage U.W.E Bristol. Then it was during my time as a printmaking tutor at the Bluecoat Art Centre, Liverpool running advanced printmaking, we produced photo collages using Image On and Lazer-Tran. It wasn't until recently I actually dove back into learning how to transfer images through this safer alternative process. Seeking out to re learn this technique, in October 2019, I attended a workshop with the highly inspiring Henrik Bœgh, at Grafisk Eksperimentarium in Copenhagen. Over the past few years I have been testing and adapting this technique with the hope to further advance my use of alternative non toxic methods for protecting the environment and healthier conditions for fellow printmakers at the print studios I’m part of in Sweden and in the UK.
PROCESS
The Photopolymer Gravures I produce are individually hand pulled prints on high quality, heavy weight printmaking paper, I mostly use Hahnemühle German Etching. My imagery begins life as a unique digital capture, derived from a series or a theme captured in nature undertaken throughout the seasonal year. After careful digital processing to convert the digital image into greyscale to suit the process, the image is transferred onto a transparent film before being time exposed on a ultraviolet light unit. The transparent positive is tightly sandwiched on top of a light sensitive metal plate ( Toyobo KM 73 ) and between a vacuum bed and piece of glass during a set exposure time. During this contact the image is transfered to plate and is then etched in a water solution, to develop and in grain on the surface before being hardened back on the UV light unit and then ready to print.
PRINTING
I print all my plates by hand in the traditional Intaglio way. Each unique plate is individually hand inked and wiped to sensitively pick up fine photographic details from the delicate etched surface. They are run through a traditional flat bed etching press ( pressed under a heavy steel roller) and sandwiched between dampened etching paper and fine woollen blankets (felts). Each time I print, this method produces a unique set of photographic printed works, sometimes with quite unexpected results. The detail in the tonal values are which I find so particularly interesting with this method of working. My eye and hand intricately work at each stage of the process, to translate its own visual language with a certain subtle characteristic of definition and depth of tone.
ORIGINAL MULTIPLES
Each edition from the same plate can be unique in its own way. This adds to the originality and it is not my intention for every print to be an exact reproduction of the last. That would be mechanically machine produced. The images are inked by hand in rich striking monochrome and sometimes as soft duotones, depending greatly upon what I choose to enhance and resonate through each photographic impression. You could say Original Multiples is a contradiction in terms, but simply put they are a variation on a theme.
I mostly produce works in a series, steadily taken from my own photographic captures, which group together as a ranging PORTFOLIO.
Also in development behind the scenes are experimental amalgamations. I am interested in mixing other forms of printmaking techniques such as copper etching using a safe ground and photopolymer, carborundum for adding textured colour, and playful tetrapack collotypes. These are ongoing experiments I shall continue in the background until I have a method I am happy with - Check back in on Instagram for any updates.
The most recent Limited Edition Print Releases will feature on this page, but more information about my previous photographic works, kept in the archives are available upon request. Please email to peruse this archive list.
PROJECT OFFER
From time to time, I'm open to commissions and opportunities for photographers and artists to produce their works through this alternative photographic process. I tailor make prints to your specific designed project.
Individual Quotes & examples available.
Contact direct to discuss your unique project idea.
