Third Claud Gelee etching

This is the third Claude etching that I bought, it is later than the other two and very much more like his landscape paintings, with all his usual elements Goatherd, long horned goats also with travellers in the distance.

Another Claude Gelee etching

This etching by Claude Gelee is rather better done than the previous one, I bought three Claude etchings along with a large number etchings and engravings in a folio from a local auction, all three can be seen in museum collections around the world, so I considered myself very lucky to sucessfully bid for them.

Two beetles

This is one of the first etchings that I made so it is still a great favorite, it was just one beetle that a series of pencil drawings were made while it was trapped in a jamjar, the surface tone and heavier shadows beneath their bodies was made using aquatint.

Claude early etching

This very early etching by Claude Gelee who is better known as Claude or Claude le Lorrain, it is not to well done but he did improve quite quickly, I bought it very cheaply in an album of prints at a local auction, also in the album were two more by him which I shall post soon.

Nepalese outdoor loo

The Weirotter etching of an outdoor loo that I posted several days ago, reminded me of a drawing I did many years ago of a Nepalese toilet, that was situated so that it projected out from the hill, so that the flies were fifty or sixty feet below.

Samuel Howitts hunt etching

This engraving by Samuel Howitt in 1798 is the first of a set of six, these hunting prints were extremely popular in their time, even now they they turn up frequently at picture and print auctions, I have aquired a couple of sets over the years and just down the road an antique shop has a set for sale at over two hundred pounds, he is one of my favorite etchers who drew his own designs.

Hollacombe Barton

I was commissioned to engrave this farmhouse from a very old photograph, it had burnt down in the 1930's and became a rather tatty barn, a fairly modern farmhouse being built to replace it, I inked up the plate with a brown ink which seemed to suit it.

Zacharias Dolendo's Adam and Eve

I bought an old book on etching fairly recently, but neither the previous owner nor the secondhand bookseller had noticed that the small engraving of Adam and Eve, that had been used as a bookmark, was in fact a sixteenth century print by Zacharias Dolendo who was born in Leyden about the yuear 1560, I like the homely touch of little hound scratching his ear.

Weirotter landscape

This etching from my collection is a small landscape by Franz Edmund Weirotter, who was born in Innsbruck in 1730 and died in Vienna in 1771, it shows just how simply people lived at that time, even down to wonky outdoor loo.

Sheep in a bottle

This engraving was just a bit of fun, a friend said could I make a print of a 'Ship in a bottle' which seemed rather tame so I engraved some sheep and cut the copper plate into the shape of a bottle, which has worked quite well.

Scent of Jack Russell

This engraving was made using a hand held high speed engraver similar to those used by model makers, I find it much more like drawing than using a tradional engraving tool, the avocets in the picture below were also engraved this way, but for the mud lines a diamond dust encrusted glass engraving tool held between finger and thumb, was rolled across the surface of the copper plate so that lines of tiny pits were made, which seems to work quite well, the plate was then inked up and hand wiped, then run off on my etching press.

avocet siesta

This is an old etching that is slightly skewed as I was trying out a hand held scanner that had just been purchased, it was etched by J de Visscher after a painting by Adrien Brouwer.

I'm back again!