Artwork description:

This is a relief solarplate, or photopolymer plate. It looks like a woodcut, but it began as a drawing on transparent film which was exposed in a UV box onto a photosensitive plate. You can also do this in the sunshine. The bits that don't let the light through are washed away when the plate is soaked in water, then the plate is hardened in the sun. Then it's printed exactly like a woodcut. The tricky bit is that you have to draw your image in negative - the white areas will be back in the final print.

The subject is the story of the Cockerel from the Nun's Priest's Tale, one of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Mr Chanticleer is a great scholar, but not so aware as his wife is of the hazards of living in a chicken coop. The Middle English text translates as: "Whoso will read of sundry realms the themes /May learn of dreams full many a wondrous thing." Chanticleer is reassuring his wife that bad dreams don't necessarily have an ominous portent - but perhaps, for all his worldly wisdom, he should have heeded her premonitions.

I made this print for an international print exchange, so the first 24 prints have gone to other printmakers' collections all over the world.

Materials used:

Oil based Relief Ink on Japon Archival Relief paper

Tags:

#geoffrey chaucer #chaucer art #chaucer #chanticleer and pertelote #relief solarplate print #print exchange #illustration #print #handmade print #relief print #book illustration #chanticleer