The subject has been modelled volumetrically with the burnisher, and the details of the coastal waves at the lower left have been made more distinct.
The rocks have been burnished in various places so as to more accurately depict their irregular morphology and to provide the image with greater tonal differentiation.
- Catalogue Number
- E.024
- Title and Date
- North Devon 1990
- Description of Featured Image
- A rocky promontory of large, jagged rocks juts from the right, in a large irregular triangle, into the sea. A narrow view of the horizon is visible at the left, just above the centre of the image.
- Where Made
- Dunmoochin, Cottles Bridge
- Medium Category and Technique
- Intaglio Print: Mezzotint and etching on copper
- Support
- Wove paper. Identified papers: White Fabriano paper with watermark: ‘CMF’ with star above, within a circle/oval. Other papers mentioned in notes on this work in Amor’s intaglio record books: white Stonehenge paper and cream BFK Rives paper.
- Dimensions
-
Image size: 87 x 100 mm
Matrix size: 87 x 100 mm - Artist’s Record Number
- RAE.20
- Printer(s) and Workshop(s)
- All impressions printed by Rick Amor in his Dunmoochin studio, Cottles Bridge.
- Summary Edition Information
- Four states. Edition of ten numbered impressions, 1990.
- Exhibitions
- Niagara Galleries 1990: Niagara Galleries, Richmond (Melbourne), Rick Amor, opened 19 June 1990 [closing date not recorded], no. 21, ed. 1/10.
- Niagara Galleries & NETS Victoria 1993–94: Niagara Galleries & NETS Victoria, Melbourne, Rick Amor & the Graphic Arts, Victorian and Tasmanian tour, 1993–94, no. 34.
- Collections
- State Library of Victoria, Melbourne: four state impressions, numbered 1 through 4; ed. 5/10.
- National Gallery of Australia, Canberra: ed. 9/10 (2007.645).
- Comment
The subject here is the rocky promontory of Hartland Quay in North Devon, on the Atlantic coast of England. Due to their geological formation, the cliffs in the area have spectacular folds, which, over time, have created a dramatic landscape. Amor visited North Devon – the land of his forebears – in 1989, and while there he worked outdoors, painting with watercolours and drawing.
Related to E.024 is a watercolour of the cliffs at Hartland Quay, in the artist’s 1989–91 sketchbook; this work is dated 16 September 1989. However, the print is based on an oil painting that was done after the watercolour.
This is Amor’s first mezzotint, a technique he chose because it seemed to him that it suited the subject matter. He did not use a mezzotint rocker to prepare the plate, but instead relied on his father’s roulette wheel. (Amor has pointed out, however, that his father only ever made relief prints.) The addition of etching in the third state of E.024 indicates that the artist had some difficulties in controlling tonal differentiation in the image, and in obtaining the required intensity of blackness – not surprising, for his first attempt at a mezzotint. Despite this, the edge of roughness in the plate is in perfect keeping with the ruggedness of the subject.
The impressions in the edition of this work are not uniformly printed. This is due partly to Amor’s lack of experience in printing mezzotints, and partly also to his inherently experimental attitude to printing editions.
On the verso of the copper plate used for E.024 is an etching depicting a female nude reclining on pillows or a sofa; this image was never printed and has been cancelled with a large cross.
- Keywords
- England, Landscape - sea, Sea
- URL
- https://catalogue.rickamor.com.au/works/intaglio/north-devon/
Record last updated 09/02/2021