COLLAGRAPHS

Notes: A Collaboration Between Artist Tim Storrier and Master Printmaker Paul Smith.

The Collagraph print is best described as a printmaking technique, where the image is composed from a variety of textures applied in this case to a carved wooden plate and printed either in an intaglio or relief fashion. The textures are comprised of various gel and impasto mediums that are brushed, scraped or poured onto the surface. 

A tracing is made from the original artwork and transferred directly to a wooden plate. This plate in printmaking terms is referred to as the master plate. From this plate other plates are created for the different areas i.e. the sky, the clouds, the dart, and the written text within the dart.

The negative areas in each plate are carved away and the positive areas are coated with a gel medium creating a textured surface.

Using a series of hard and soft rollers ink is applied to the surface of the plate. Some areas are wiped back to provide a soft edge and tonal variation. The print is then rolled through the press. There can be as many eighty colours and up to eight plates for each edition. Reduction printing is used; printing the largest areas first and carving areas that are no longer used until a small area remains. Within this process the plate is destroyed. There are generally three stages of printing, working from the lightest to the darkest colours. While painting the original image Tim also made a detailed coloured chart with written instructions, which was referred to, during the printing process.

There is continual dialogue with Tim in which the direction and the colours of the print are discussed at length. This process continues until the print is complete.

Once the printing is completed and the artist and myself are satisfied with the image we then stamp and sign the print at the bottom right hand corner to signify the completed collaboration between the artist and the master printmaker.

It is not my intention as a printer to create an exact copy of the original, but rather, in collaboration with the artist to express the essence of the original image through the unique graphic technique of colograph. Arthur Boyd once said to me “this work is half yours and half mine” That is why I place my stamp next to the artist which signifies the end of the printing process.