E.110 Sea dream 1998

• I. 1st state of 3

  Etching. On a narrow, steep headland that juts into the sea, two tiny figures run uphill, fleeing a giant wave that threatens to engulf them. The subject is lightly etched. There are three variant impressions of this state.

  1. Light grey, dry impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1/3 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Sea Dream’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 98’.
  2. Strong, dark impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘2/3 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Sea Dream’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 98’.
  3. Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘3/3 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Sea Dream’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 98’.

• I.b. 1st state of 3

  

  Etching. On a narrow, steep headland that juts into the sea, two tiny figures run uphill, fleeing a giant wave that threatens to engulf them. The subject is lightly etched. There are three variant impressions of this state.

• II. 2nd state of 3

  More etching has been added to the distant sea, to the sky and to the waves. The fence posts have been made thicker and the two figures re-etched. An area at the top right edge of the image shows light bursting through the clouds, the result of burnishing. There are two variant impressions of this state.

  1. Light grey impression, with patches of dryness, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1/2 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Sea Dream’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 98’.
  2. Strong, dark impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘2/2 [circled]’; lower centre: ‘Sea Dream’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 98’.

• II.b. 2nd state of 3

  

  More etching has been added to the distant sea, to the sky and to the waves. The fence posts have been made thicker and the two figures re-etched. An area at the top right edge of the image shows light bursting through the clouds, the result of burnishing. There are two variant impressions of this state.

• III. 3rd and final state

  Another small area of light has been burnished into the sky, just above the highest peak of the giant wave.

  Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP’; lower centre: ‘Sea Dream’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 98’.

• Edition, 1998

  Nominal edition of ten, but only five impressions were printed and numbered. These are on wove paper and were printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. The edition included an artist’s proof (for details, see ‘III. 3rd and final state’, above). Each edition impression is inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘[1 through 5]/10’; lower centre: ‘Sea Dream’; lower right: signed and dated ‘Rick Amor 98’.

  Edition sheet size: 384 x 280 mm

• Edition impression, 1998 (Featured Image)

  

• Comment

  This etching was made after the painting titled A dream of the sea, 1998, for which Amor painted two studies (Fry 2008).

  For Amor, the waters of the sea are, with few exceptions, a place of lurking threats. Here, however, the sea becomes an overt and active protagonist as it rises up suddenly in a great surging wave – a portent of imminent obliteration. Although the artist has said that this image was not based on a specific dream, the subject itself is the stuff of nightmares – of nightmares that can turn into reality, as witnessed by the devastating Asian tsunamis of recent times.

  Behind Amor’s representations of prospective disasters, such as the image depicted in E.110, lies his ever-present awareness of mortality.

  The artist’s decision to etch a grand and sublime subject on a tiny scale was a deliberately imposed challenge to himself.