Backroads Traveler

2010-08-19T11:33:00.000-05:00

What is Solarplate?

I have mentioned that I got into Solarplate prints in the last year and there may be some of you that are wondering what I am talking about. In the next few blogs I will take you through the process of doing a Solarplate etching. It is a great product that has a lot of potential in the printmaking arts.

Solarplate is a thin metal plate coated with a layer of photo-sensitive polymer that hardens when exposed to ultraviolet light. The product I use is called Solarplate Copper, and is available through most of the art supply sources. You can go to www.solarplate.com to read more about the product. Dan Welden has developed the product and has a book out, called "Printmaking in the Sun". You can get it through that web site or through Amazon.com.

The basic set up involves a cushioned board with a 1/4" glass plate and clamps for the plate exposing and either sunlight or a UV light box to expose the plates. Below is a photo of the light box I built using 6 inexpensive blacklights purchased at Walmart. You can also see the board with glass and clamps.

The first step in the process is preparing an image for the print. The image is prepared on clear acetate, either by painting or drawing directly on acetate or by preparing an image on the computer and printing on the acetate with an inkjet printer. I have used photo images and scanned pen & ink images as my original art for the acetate. Photos must be modified in photoshop to be shades of grey and dot patterns or you must double expose the plate with an aquatint screen first or the darks will not print solid. In the image above I posterized the photo and added film grain in order to acheive the dot pattern.

The image is then printed onto inkjet-printable clear acetate at the size of the solarplate you have chosen. The acetate is then placed emusion side down over the solarplate and the glass is clamped on top. The plate is then ready to be exposed.

In the next blog I will go through the exposure process and developing the plate.

Art is not created on the canvas, the potter's wheel or on the screen of the computer.

Art is created in the artist's imagination.

The rest are just tools.

Stephen M. Perry

2010-08-17T12:10:00.000-05:00

It's Been a Learning Year

With two more art fairs coming up and five under the belt, I am stepping back to assess what I have learned this year.

Color sells.

Over the winter I got into Solarplate etchings and aquatints and added subtle watercolor tints to them after the printing process. It's been amazing to see the increase in response to the colored prints. Those are basically all I have been selling this year. Needless to say, I will be continuing along that path!

I have got to develop a lower price-point product.

You can't rely on the public to buy artwork only in the $100 - $300 price level. I have noticed that all of the printmakers that I have seen at shows have a lower level product. Many have gone to glicee prints, or inkjet printer reproductions, of their work that can be sold at a lower price-point. In general, the public doesn't understand the difference in an original etching and a copy. My response to the issue is that I am going to develop designs specifically to be printed by inkjet with a different look than the original etchings. They will be small and will appeal to the impulse buyer.

I have to stand out.

My booth and display at the art fairs has been neat, clean and boring. I need to develop a distinctive look that will help me stand out from the 100 - 300 other artists. In actuality, you are in competition for the pocketbooks of the people who walk through the art fair. I thought it would be enough to show good work and people would buy. These days, people are very selective in what they spend their hard-earned money on. You have to attract them, engage them, interest them and sell them. I am working on a design for an attractive print display unit for my matted prints that will stand out from the other booths.

One of my solarplates with watercolor

"Last Catch"

by Stephen M Perry

The fading late afternoon sun has turned the Birches

into a bright golden accent on the lake bank.

The summer has faded into fall and

It’s about time to put the canoe away for the season...

But today there is time for one last catch.

Visit my web site for more information:

http://www.backroadspress.com/

2010-08-16T15:07:00.000-05:00

It's Been a Busy Year

Well, it's been almost a year since I last blogged.
2010 has been a very busy year. We were juried into some highly rated art fairs, have developed a new look for my etchings with watercolor tints, have mastered the solarplate method of printmaking and have several new outlets for my work, including a current showing at the Coutts Memorial Museum of Art in El Dorado, Kansas.
We have exhibited at the Book & Art Fair in Wichita, KS, the Edina Art Fair in Edina, MN, the Smoky Hill River Festival in Salina, KS, the Downtown Omaha Art Fair and the big Uptown Art Fair in Minneapolis, MN. Upcoming shows include the new Autumn & Art at Bradley Fair in Wichita and the ArtFest West Show in West Des Moines, IA. There may be one or two more that we try to work in between football games and fall foliage trips. It seems that things just keep getting busier and busier!

Below is one of the new Solarplate Aquatints that I have been showing.

Just Fishin'

by Stephen M. Perry

Sometimes you work hard to create a better life.

Other times you take the problems of the world on your shoulders.

Often you find that there is more to do than a day can hold...

Sometimes you need to sit and just fish.

You can see more of my work on my web site:

http://www.backroadspress.com/

Stephen M. Perry

2009-09-09T12:09:00.000-05:00

Visions of the Flint Hills

Preserving the Tallgrass Prairie Art Exhibit and Sale

I am pleased to report that I have had one of my etchings accepted into this juried, benefit show and sale in Kansas City. This show is a benefit for the Kansas Park Trust, www.kansasflinthills.org, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and the Flint Hills in Kansas. The show is at the Buttonwood Art Space, 3013 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64108.

You can find out more about the show at www.visionsoftheflinthills.org.

Above Otter Creek

Original Copper Plate Etching by Stephen Perry

The Print that was accepted is above and can be seen on my Backroads Gallery page at

www.backroadspress.com.

Stephen Perry

2009-09-08T14:38:00.000-05:00

New Linocut Just Printed

I just finished a new Linocut (Linoleum Block Print) to add to my showing at Botanica, the Wichita Gardens, on Saturday, Sept. 12th. The show has a great setting in the gardens and should be a good show if it doesn't rain. The Linocut is from a location we drove by up northeast of Tuttle Creek Reservoir in the Flint Hills. The old ranchhouse is on Meyers Valley Road, just east of Highway K-13.

Proof Print of Prairie Homestead

I'm also trying to get a new etching done for the Botanica show. We'll see if I can get the edition finished and get the prints dry with all the rain this week.

Check out my new website:

www.backroadspress.com

Stephen Perry

2009-09-07T20:45:00.000-05:00

A New Determination and A New Web Site

I have to admit that it's been quite a while since I blogged. I am determined to post on a regular schedule from now on. While away I was working on new prints and getting my web site developed which took much longer than I was planning. The wait and the work was worth every bit of angst. I am extremely happy with the web site and what I am able to do with it.

If you have a chance, please visit my site at:

http://www.backroadspress.com/.

What you will find is a full Backroads Gallery of my original etchings of scenes found along the backroads, many of them from the fabulous Kansas Flint Hills. I will be adding new prints each month as they are created. I also have a Backroads Journal with stories of the great backroad travels that we experience on our search for scenes to feature on my prints. I hope that the stories will entertain and encourage you to drive a few backroads and find the true America.

Drive a few backroads, take in the sights and sounds of the countryside

and learn to love this great Country of ours!

Stephen Perry, Backroads Traveler

http://www.backroadspress.com/

2009-04-25T21:25:00.000-05:00

April Final Friday

Last Friday we were able to participate in the Final Friday Gallery Crawl as the featured artist in Springpark Gallery in Clifton Square. With such a great evening and perfect weather it is hard to believe that only a month ago it got cancelled by the blizzard! The art aficionados were out in force. It is amazing how the arts scene has sprung to life in Wichita! It's a good thing, not only for Wichita and the artists, but for the young crowd, who for so long have complained about there not being interesting things to do in Wichita. With Final Friday and now First Friday Music events, the Downtown and Old Town have come alive. It's great!

"1881 Spring Hill Ranch"

An Original Etching

My First Sale

Tall and stately,

it has watched as fortunes and fads have come and gone,

generations age and youth leave for brighter horizons...

Yet, through it all, the grasses, the hills,

and the sky have remained constant and eternal.

Stephen M. Perry

2009-04-16T11:59:00.000-05:00

Looking forward to the Symphony in the Flint Hills

For the past four years I have had the opportunity to work with the Symphony in the Flint Hills organization on illustrations for their program book. Talk about a great event! The Symphony in the Flint Hills is a world class event that Kansas can be proud of! It's too bad that tickets are so limited and hard to get. Tickets go on sale early in April and usually sell out in one day, but I just now visited their web site, www.symphonyintheflinthills.org, and they are saying tickets are still available, but the site may not have been updated since April 9th. Check it out if you are interested.Spend some time on the prairie,

Learn to recognise subtle variations of the bluestem prairie grasses.

Notice the myriad wildflowers and critters of the grasslands.

There is some real beauty to be found everywhere.

Stephen M. Perry

2009-04-09T20:53:00.000-05:00

New Proof Print

Today was a printing day to finish up an edition started earlier and to proof the new etching plate that I have been working on in the past week. The image below is from the plate done from the drive up Carnahan Creek Road north of Manhattan. The title of the print will be "Above Otter Creek". There's still some work to do on the plate, such as polishing the beveled edges so that they don't catch ink and print dark like the image below. I am also trying to decide if I will do an aquatint on the ground surfaces to give them some tone. The line work was successful and I hate to take a chance on messing up the image with bad aquatint. I may go ahead and print a small run without aquatint and then try it so that I will at least have a small edition.

"Above Otter Creek" Proof Print

From the pavement to the pasture

the track is rutted and muddy,

but for the cattleman the way is the life he has chosen...

He is the steward of the cattle, the land and the Bluestem grasses,

but above all he is the steward of independence and hard work.

Stephen M. Perry

2009-04-08T09:34:00.000-05:00

Just a Studio Day

I just got back from a Botanica Children's Garden Steering Committee meeting. Fundraising is still underway, but the project is shaping up to be a great and exciting addition to Botanica and a wonderful attraction for Wichita. Stop in to Botanica and find about the project and how you can be a part of making it happen.

Tomorrow will be a printing day. Today will be spent matting and framing prints for the upcoming Wichita Book and Art Fair on May 9th and 10th. It will be our first art fair since the early '80s. Exciting, but lots of work to prepare enough prints to hang a decent show and have replacements for all of the prints we plan to sell! Damn the economy and full speed ahead!

Real happiness is not related to wealth.

It resides in the joy of achievement

and the therapy of creative expression.

Stephen M. Perry

2009-04-06T16:40:00.000-05:00

Another Print from the Backroads Gallery

Since I spent today dealing with issues other than printmaking, like trying to find that right person to help me take my web site to the next level, I thought I would post another of my etchings from a drive through the southern portion of the Flint Hills. These Daylilies were found growing in the ditch along the side of the road just north of Silverdale, in Cowley County, Kansas.

"Lilies of Days Past"

An Original Etching by Stephen Perry

Leftovers from some past pioneer's connection to civilization,

escapees from a farm wife's tended flower border

or runaways from the community down the road...

The ditch Daylilies remind us of times past

and brighten the day's drive.

Stephen M. Perry

2009-04-05T17:58:00.000-05:00

The Etching Process

The copper plate, grounded and scribed in earlier posts, has been etched in a Ferric Chloride and Citric Acid solution, called Edinburgh Etch, in a series of seven steps totaling one hour and forty minutes. The etching solution is a corrosive salt that eats into the copper that is exposed in the scribed lines. The entire plate is etched in the first step and then the lines desired to be the lightest are stopped out, or painted over with a lacquer-type solution. At each step some of the lines are stopped out with the result being a series of line darkness from dark bold to light, giving the illusion of depth in the scene. The lines that are etched the longest are eaten deeper into the plate and, as a result, will hold more ink and print bolder.

The Etched and Cleaned Plate is Inspected

Once the etching is considered complete, the stop-out solution is removed with alcohol, the hard ground is removed with paint thinner, the plate is cleaned and inspected. Additional work can be done on the plate by repeating the entire process of grounding, scribing and etching, or by several other means. I will talk about a few of those processes in future posts.

Some of the time I feel like an Artist,

some of the time I am a Chemist stirring up the corrosive salts,

and at times I am a journeyman printer or a coppersmith.

There's part of my day I spend as a journalist...

But throughout it all,

there is the creation of thoughts on paper for all to see.

Stephen M. Perry

2009-04-03T15:03:00.000-05:00

From the Backroads Gallery

Another one of the great places in the Flint Hills, this scene is found east of K-177 and north of the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Chase County.

"UPPER FOX CREEK WATERSHED"

An Original Etching

Flanking Highway 177 through Strong Township in Chase County,

The Fox Creek watershed includes private land and

some of the most well-known Flint Hills pasture lands,

Set aside and managed for the future

in the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.

Stephen M. Perry

2009-04-01T20:03:00.000-05:00

Printmaking Process

Scribed Copper Plate Ready for Etching

The plate shown below has been scribed and is ready for the etching process. I have used the tools shown to scratch through the hard ground coating, creating a line drawing in reverse. Not only is the drawing reversed as a negative with the lines showing as lighter copper color on the dark background, but the image is reversed from the actual scene. The plate must be a reverse of the scene so that when the plate is printed and a mirror image of the plate is created, the image will be correct. I have flipped the reference photo in Photoshop in order to use it as a reference for the scribing.

Scribed Plate and Reference Photo

Detail of Scribed Plate

The black and white etching,

as the pen and ink drawing, is a process of reducing an image to its simplest form.

Without the distraction of color interpretation and reaction,

the viewer is able to move straight to the details which define the scene.

Stephen M. Perry

2009-04-01T10:25:00.000-05:00

From the Backroads Gallery

This etching was completed late last year. The old wood barn was found southwest of Council Grove in Morris County, Kansas. It seemed sad that the old barn was abandoned and just waiting for the elements to take their toll. Just think of all the years that it was the center of life on the farm.

"OLD WOOD BARN"

An original Etching

Making one more stand against the elements,

The old wood barn,

Once the center of all the sheltering and toil,

Awaits its eventual demise into a pile of yesterday's memories.

Stephen M. Perry

2009-03-31T11:28:00.000-05:00

Next Step in the Printmaking Process.

Grounding the Plate.

The polished copper plate has been cleaned with vinegar-salt water to remove tarnish and degreased with a paste of whiting (chalk powder) and ammonia water. The degreasing process assures that the hard ground adheres well to the smooth copper plate.

The clean plate is warmed on a hotplate and the hard ground, which is a waxy, tar-like substance, is applied with a small brush. The warm ground flows out into a thin, even coating over the plate. The plate is placed back on the hotplate to evaporate the solvents and begin the drying. After the plate has smoked a few minutes, it is removed to a cool surface to harden. After the plate has cooled and the ground hardened, the plate is ready to be worked.

Next: Scribing the image into the hard ground coating.

My attitude about printmaking is not necessarily about printmaking.

It's about making the best kind of image I can...

It's about talking as clearly as I can.

Stephen M. Perry

It's a New Week!

2009-03-30T10:50:00.000-05:00

It's a new week.

The snow is melting and spring is back!

Putting the frustration of getting another rejection notice from an art fair application aside, I am preparing a copper plate for a new etching for the upcoming shows that I do have booked.

We ventured up north of Manhattan a few weeks ago, on the east side of Tuttle Creek, following the Carnahan Creek Road, into some of the best of the Flint Hills terrain. The area deserves another day of exploring, which we will do within the next month, but a few of the photos I have will make great subjects for the next etching.

Follow along and I will take you through the preparation of the plate, the etching process and then printing an edition of prints on my studio etching press.

The copper plate has been beveled on the edges, to prevent the edge of the plate from cutting through the paper during the press run, and polished ready for degreasing and application of the hard ground coating.

The snows of March have come and gone.

Weather in Kansas has a way of invigorating and enlivening the mundane.

It's the changes and the challenges that keep us fresh!

Stephen M. Perry

2009-03-29T13:07:00.000-05:00

Mother Nature and the fickle Kansas weather conspired to shut down my coming out party last Friday by blowing up a real March blizzard. Springpark Gallery in Clifton Square had generously given me a wall to display a selection my etchings for the Final Friday event. My first showing! Almost! Until we get the next event scheduled, here's a preview.

"Waiting for Spring"

An Original Etching

The snows and the winds have paid their visit.

The loft lies empty from its winter feed.

Somewhere out there is the new bud, the Bluestem sprout of Spring

that comes and brings with it new hope for a better year…

Sometimes it's only optimism that gets you from one year to the next.

Stephen M. Perry