Artwork description:

Jane Austen's house is in the village of Chawton, Hampshire, not far from where I live. The proprietors leave an old-fashioned beribboned straw bonnet handy for visitors to try on. A young woman I know did so, and the image of her in the sunshine, with dappled light on the shrubs behind her, inspired this drypoint etching.

Drypoint is an intaglio method which doesn’t need the use of acids. All you need is an intaglio press (as opposed to a relief press). This particular work was done by scratching into the surface of a thin aluminium plate with a sharp point.
As the sharp point or needle is drawn across the surface of the plate, it throws up a burr on either side of the scratched mark. The scratch made into the surface of the plate is relatively shallow. However, the ink is deposited in the scratched mark and also trapped underneath the burr, giving the drypoint image its characteristic soft, velvety, rich line. Variation in the appearance of the thickness of the scratched line is achieved by the amount of ink left on the plate at the inking stage.

With drypoint, despite all the work involved in creating the design on the plate, there is a relatively low limit on the number of times the artist can print it. Each time it is printed, the all-important burrs are worn down. So these prints are rare and special. There is a variation with a touch of colour, which is a separate listing.

Please note that I am willing to ship to most countries, so if the shipping profile for this artwork does not include where you are, please feel free to message me to make a request.

Materials used:

Oil-based artists' quality printing inks on robust paper

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