Dinner with Bouquet

Dinner with Bouquet.
Triple Plate Etching, Relief Roll through Stencil. 
45.5cm x 45.5cm. 2014.

My new print is finished and I've started printing the edition. It is high time I got that done since we're moving from Minneapolis to Edmonton in two weeks and I need to start packing. This print is loosely connected to the previous one (Picking Apples) through the theme of 'Small Pleasures'. However, stylistically the pieces look very different I find and they will have to stand as individual pieces instead of as a series like I had initially planned. This is another triple plate print (since I started using three plates I have a hard time going back to working with only two plate and colours); there is a blue, a red, and a black plate. I apply the yellow with a stencil on the red plate; I tried wiping some of the yellow à la poupeé, but it oxidized right away and turned a muddy green so I decided to add all the yellow with the relief roll through a stencil onto the surface of the red plate to keep it nice a bright.
As you can see I had a lot of fun with the bouquet (I love picking wild flowers); the looser shadows I did as a sugar lift. I also loved putting in my favourite table cloth in this picture with a softground pattern of the weave. As you can see, we love good food and a little bit of beauty around us in our everyday lives. Enjoy!

I want to share some pictures about the process:




















Above: Detail of bouquet while stopping out during the etching process of the aquatints - a piece of patience.
Below: Printing of Dinner with Bouquet; blue plate and red plate with yellow stencil are printed - ready to run the print through the press with the key plate.