E.033 A town by the sea 1990

• I. 1st state of 4, 1990

  Mezzotint. A nocturnal view from a hill, showing two shops, one in the left foreground, the other downhill, at the centre of the composition. Visible through the window of the shop in the left foreground is the figure of a man, dimly lit from above; he faces the viewer. Across the road, on the right, are a street light and a tall cypress. In the right distance is a meandering river, leading into the sea. The composition is broadly defined, with the burnisher’s marks clearly evident.

  Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘A Town by the Sea’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’.

• II. 2nd state of 4, 1990

  

  Further burnishing has been applied throughout, to clarify the subject. A crescent moon has been added in the sky, and vertical bands of light have been burnished into the windows and door of the central building.

  Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘2 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘A Town by the Sea’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’.

• III. 3rd state of 4, 1990

  More burnishing has been applied throughout the composition. The light pole, the roof of the building beyond it, and the cypress, have been modelled more precisely.

  Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘3 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘A Town by the Sea’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’.

• IV. 4th and final state, 1990

  The light areas of the sky and the road have been further burnished. There are two variant impressions of this state.

  1. Dry, over-wiped impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘4 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘A Town by the Sea’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’.
  2. Dark, but cleanly wiped impression on wove BFK Rives paper (according to Amor’s intaglio record books), printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘5 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘A Town by the Sea’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’. Although inscribed ‘5’, this is an impression of the fourth and final state. (Featured Image)

• IV.b. 4th and final state, 1990 (Featured Image)

  

  The light areas of the sky and the road have been further burnished. There are two variant impressions of this state.

• Edition, 1991

  Edition of ten numbered impressions, on cream wove Stonehenge paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. The edition included one artist’s proof and one undesignated impression inscribed ‘out of series’. Each impression is inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘[status of impression]’ [or] ‘[1 through 10]/10’; lower centre: ‘A Town by the Sea’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’.

• Post-edition impressions, 1994

  Two artist’s proofs, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio; no changes had been made to the matrix for E.033 subsequent to editioning. According to Amor’s intaglio record books, these impressions are inscribed ‘AP I’ and ‘AP II’, and dated 1994. Neither impression has been sighted and the whereabouts of both are unknown.

  After these impressions were printed, the matrix was cancelled.

• Comment

  The town by the sea to which the title of this work refers is Amor’s birthplace, and his home until early adulthood – Frankston, a bayside town on the outskirts of Melbourne. Frankston’s sweeping curve of beach and the meandering Kananook Creek can be seen in the far right distance in this print. The arched eyebrows of the figure standing ghost-like in the shop window at left identify it as Rick Amor himself.

  However, E.033 is not so much a record of the appearance of a specific place as it is a remembrance of feelings and experience. This is made explicit in the painting on which the mezzotint is based – A town by the sea (looking back), 1990 – whose colours are those of glowing twilight on the cusp of darkness. The mezzotint follows the painting closely, but reverses its orientation. There is an earlier painted variant of the subject, with the title Town by the sea, 1989–90 (Catalano 2001), the composition of which was later used for a lithograph, printed in 1992.

  Amor has said that he had difficulty printing this, his third mezzotint, as the plate broke down quickly. Nevertheless, the entire edition (as well as two post-edition impressions some three years later) was printed before the plate was cancelled, with a cut to its upper left corner.