Back in Santa Fe

I have been back in Santa Fe now for just over a week.  It’s good to be back of course and now jet lag has gone, I can enjoy being here.  I did manage to stay awake long enough to go etching last Thursday though.  I couldn’t possibly miss that!  Thursdays with the etching group was one of the things I missed the most about not being in Santa Fe (besides my husband of course!).  Not only do we get to use the facilities and materials for $10 per session, we also get dinner cooked by Eric’s fair hands!

Just a few of the Santa Fe etchers

The Santa Fe Etching Club first began meeting in 1980, in Eli Levin’s studio.   Formed by Levin and artist Sarah McCarty, with the patronage of print collector Dr. Robert Bell, the club promotes traditional intaglio printmaking.   Eric Thomson, the Director of Argos Gallery which exhibits many of the prints created at the club, also organises the wonderful exhibitions of prints from the amazing personal collection of Dr. Bell.  This last month we have been lucky enough to be surrounded by some of Goya’s incredible prints and if you are in Santa Fe it is well worth a visit.  There is something quite special about creating your own prints at a table with a Goya by your side.   Here is a pdf for you download of an article on the Goya exhibit. 

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Another wonderful evening etching.

I have been working on this new plate for a few weeks now. We only go to etching once a week on Thursdays and usually after running around Santa Fe doing errands first, so we usually arrive late afternoon and work until 10 or 11. It’s hard to go home and thanks to Eric, who always has some food cooking, we can stay the whole evening without interruption! I decided this time to methodically etch a plate without aquatint or dry point. So the bottom photo displays a steady progression of the results of adding the wax ground, etching the lines, cleaning the plate and printing the plate, then adding another wax ground and doing the whole process again and again. I think it helps with a greater understanding of the process. So many times in the past, especially with aquatint I have ended up with the plate being too dark and I have had to burnish a lot. I like this method, it has a little more control. I think it’s almost finished, but I need to just darken the shadows and add a few more highlights.