A couple of years ago I moved my dad into the self contained suite on the first floor of our house, including his Scandinavian furniture and decades worth of his artwork. I have an opportunity to curate an exhibition of his work at one of our galleries here called the Confluence Gallery.
Initially, the concept was to do a father and son show. I think my contribution will be a few of my portraits of dad that I’ve done over the years like the one pictured here.
This is a sugar lift etching on a zinc plate that I made over twenty years ago. For those unfamiliar with the process, you begin with a drawing on the bare metal plate using a mixture of India ink and corn syrup. When dry it gets covered with a soft ground made of asphaltum. When that dries the whole affair is dipped in a tray of water allowing the water to work its way into the ground dissolving and lifting away the brush strokes that were drawn with the sugar/ink solution. This process reveals bare metal where the drawing was. Then the whole affair is dipped in an acid bath which etches away the exposed parts. The plate is printed on the etching press.
The show opens on the 11th of June.