Westonbirt Oak
'Westonbirt Oak' aquatint and hard ground etching with chine collé.
Printed on 300gsm Somerset paper.
Plate size 58cm x 40cm.
Paper measures 56cm x 76cm.
Signed, titled and numbered in an edition of 30.
Please note that etchings all have slight variations and will not be exactly the same as the photograph due to the subtle nuance in hand inking and wiping the plate. The same goes for the hand applied watercolour which will have differences between prints.
'Westonbirt Oak' aquatint and hard ground etching with chine collé.
Printed on 300gsm Somerset paper.
Plate size 58cm x 40cm.
Paper measures 56cm x 76cm.
Signed, titled and numbered in an edition of 30.
Please note that etchings all have slight variations and will not be exactly the same as the photograph due to the subtle nuance in hand inking and wiping the plate. The same goes for the hand applied watercolour which will have differences between prints.
'Westonbirt Oak' aquatint and hard ground etching with chine collé.
Printed on 300gsm Somerset paper.
Plate size 58cm x 40cm.
Paper measures 56cm x 76cm.
Signed, titled and numbered in an edition of 30.
Please note that etchings all have slight variations and will not be exactly the same as the photograph due to the subtle nuance in hand inking and wiping the plate. The same goes for the hand applied watercolour which will have differences between prints.
This large etching is made using multiple layers of hard ground, aquatint, sugar lift, scraping and burnishing. Printed using charbonnel ink onto delicate 12gsm gampi chine collé and Somerset Satin paper. The gampi has a beautiful sheen that gives the print something extra in real life. I have a couple of proofs using a slightly darker and thicker chine collé paper.
This print is from an oak tree I encountered at Westonbirt Arboretum. I produced a series of screen prints a few years ago based on visits there. I revisited some of the photos and sketches to produce this print and others on my recent MA.
This body of work is based on the book by Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree. Trees communicate via mycorrhizal fungi to trade water and other nutrients. Ancient and mature trees nurture their offspring via these networks, as well as trading nutrients between other species. Botanist Simard has spent years working on this theory as part of a wider body of work, discovering what it means for forests, the climate and the wider Anthropocene.
