Mezzotints
Nova Scotian artist Robert Rutherford creates handmade silkscreen prints (or serigraphs). In the warmer months, Rutherford travels the Maritimes by motorcycle, camping and sketching both well-known and remote areas of these provinces. Working directly from his drawings and detailed notes, he paints on fabric stretched on a frame. By applying stencils on the screen with a filler that stops the ink from going through, he will use at least twenty stencils to achieve the finished edition. The editions are small, (never more than fifty), and cannot be reissued. This direct method of screen printing is the oldest of all hand printmaking techniques and does not involve photography or reproduction.
Handmade Mezzotint engravings by Nova Scotian artist Kath Kornelsen Rutherford: The rich soft dark tones characteristic of the mezzotint, are achieved by repeatedly 'rocking' a curved serrated blade on polished copper plate. Few artists today have the time to rock a plate for the days it takes to cover the plate completely in one direction, and then again at right angles to the first and so on until at least twelve different directions have been rocked. The rocked plate will print a solid black. which is then rubbed with a burnisher to create a range of tones. The finished plate is inked, wiped and rolled through a press with dampened paper (the same printing process as an etching), then in some cases watercolour paint is added. This is an original print, the direct process of drawing and working on the copper does not involve photography or reproduction.
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Kath Kornelsen Rutherford & Robert Rutherford, 544 West Petpeswick Road, Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada B0J 2L0
Telephone: (902) 889-3344 Email: prints@ns.sympatico.ca
© 2018