E.030 Foreshore 1990; reworked and retitled 2018

• I. 1st state of 6, 1990

  

  Etching. A beach scene with sand dunes, and with a headland in the far distance. In the foreground are two prominent dead trees, which lean leftwards; below them, to their right, is a boatshed with a flat roof, along which a man runs in the direction of the sea. In the left distance are three telegraph poles; beyond them is the peaked roof of a house, and there is another house depicted nearer the shore. The composition is complete in all essential details but the subject is lightly etched.

  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: ‘Foreshore’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’.

• II. 2nd state of 6, 1990

  

  Much etching has been added throughout the plate, and drypoint has been introduced to create a more tonal, and much darker, image and to intensify the appearance of the massive clouds and the other markers of stormy weather.

  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: ‘Foreshore’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’.

• III. 3rd state of 6, 1990

  

  Drypoint accents have been added to the telegraph poles at left, and to the running figure and its shadow.

  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: ‘Foreshore’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 90’.

• IV. 4th of 6, 1990 (Featured Image)

  

  The headland, the boatshed and the figure have all been burnished to a lighter tone.

  Impression on buff wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘A/P’; lower centre: ‘Foreshore’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’.

• First edition, 1990

  Edition of ten numbered impressions, on buff wove BFK Rives paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio. Each impression is inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘[1 through 10]/10’; lower centre: ‘Foreshore’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor ’90’.

   

  Edition sheet size: 324 x 382 mm

• V. 5th state of 6, 2018

  

  The parting between the overcast clouds upper left have been burnished, in order to emphasise a more distinct gap. The composition is densely etched and drypoint burr remains from the final state of E.030.

   

  Impression on wove BFK Rives paper with watermark, printed by Rosalind Atkins at Kate Herd’s studio, Alphington. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1/1’; lower centre: ‘Foreshore II’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R. Amor ‘18’.

• VI. 6th and final state, 2018

  Burnishing has decreased the intensity of remaining drypoint burr on the following sections: the clouds upper centre and upper left along the border, the vegetation in the foreground lower left, centre and lower right, and the vegetation on the dunes. In the white area where the two cloud-forms part, Amor has further burnished away some wispy black marks, lightening the area and intensifying the contrast between the black cross-hatching and this area of reflected sunlight.

  Impression with plate tone, selectively wiped, on wove Somerset paper with watermark, printed by Rosalind Atkins at Kate Herd’s studio, Alphington. Inscribed in pencil below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1/2’; lower centre: ‘Foreshore II’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R. Amor ‘18’

• Second edition, 2018

  Edition of ten numbered impressions, with plate tone on wove Somerset paper, printed by Rosalind Atkins at Kate Herd’s studio, Alphington, 2018. The edition included a Bon à tirer’ proof and an artist’s proof. Each impression is inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘[status of impression]’ [or] ‘[1 through 10]/10’; lower centre: ‘Foreshore II’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R. Amor ‘18’.

   

  Edition sheet size: 370 x 345 mm

• Comment

  Amor has explained that the subject of E.030 was prompted by the memory of a childhood game, played on the Frankston foreshore, whereby he and his friends would race along the flat roof of a boatshed and then jump from it onto the sand below (Catalano 2001). There is nothing playful about this image, however. The apprehension that the young Rick Amor must have felt before jumping off the boatshed roof is transformed here into a more general existential apprehension, which is alluded to metaphorically by the presence of the two dead trees.

  The etching is related to two other works by the artist: a drawing in pencil and pastel, Study for ‘Memory of the foreshore’ (Art Gallery of Ballarat, inv. no. 1995.52), which is inscribed with two dates ([19]89 and 1/7/90), and the oil Memory of the foreshore, dated to August 1990. Although the drawing purports to be a study for the painting, it is more likely that the painting follows the etching, as both works depict a running figure, not a stationary one as in the drawing. There are also other details that the print and the painting have in common, most notably the telegraph poles at left.

  In the first three states of the etching, Amor moved towards an increasingly clear definition of the subject and an increasingly intense evocation of threatening weather, but in the final state he drew back, toning down the blacks by burnishing areas of drypoint burr.

  Ed. 5/10 was offered as a door prize at the McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, at the time of the exhibition Rick Amor: Standing in the Shadows, in 2005.

  Almost 30 years after the last edition, Amor returned to this image of his youth. The plate underwent two further state changes that made minor amendments to the overcast clouds, before being editioned for a second time in 2018, with the title Foreshore II.