Active Artist Network

The western red cedar is a large tree, ranging between 40 to 150 feet (12 to 45 meters) tall and up to 22 feet (7 meters) in trunk diameter. Trees growing in the open will exhibit a crown that reaches the ground, whereas trees densely spaced together will only exhibit a crown at the top, where light can reach the leaves. Some individuals can live nearly a thousand years, if not more. Certain specimens on Queen Charlotte islands are around nine hundred years old.

read more »

While studying NW Indian art it was noted that there are four regions with four different art styles. The North Coast Region appears to only reach about half way up the coast of Alaska beyond that it becomes Eskimo territory with what appears to be an entirely different art style.

Recently Tribal Tattoos have enjoyed a rejuvenation . The originals go beyond the intertwined stripes of black shapes that are common today. Bountious of the ancient tattoo patterns have given way to swirls, spikes, knots, and totems that come from the conception of the initiator rather than any of the ancient tribes.

read more »

I understand that the artist burnishes to get lighter shades of grey but how do you prepare the plate to burnish it. Can a zinc plate be used or is a copper plate better?

The most critical challenge to mezzotint came from yet another technical area that was developing by leaps and bounds, the photographic processes. Englishman Fox Talbot was granted a patent for photogravure in 1858. This definitely was the most serious threat to mezzotint. It could reproduce exact images of paintings or portraits very quickly. Sizes could be adapted to any proportional format. In only twenty years, by 1879 photogravure was the most popular reproductive method. Not only was it efficient but it freed the publishers from having to pay the high engravers fees, and many plates could be made from one negative so editions became virtually unlimited. Artists and publishers were also freed from having to deal with engravers interpretations of subjects and their sometimes surly attitudes.

read more »

For many years it was thought that Prince Rupert was the discoverer of mezzotint. Publications from the time mention only the Prince as working in the mezzotint method and it was assumed that he initiated the technique.

read more »

Mezzotint is one of the oldest printing techniques. It is a time consuming deductive method, similar to linocut in that the artist leaves the areas that he wants to print dark. It can produce the most delicate of gray tones and the smoothest tonal transitions from light to dark or dark to light. It was the printing method of choice by publishers and clients during the 17th and 18th centuries and is still the most versatile and beautiful of the old techniques.

read more »