| |
|
|
Doing Things Backwards
It seems fitting to find, in the Saxon town of
Colyton, the artist Roger St Barbe who etches using ancient methods
– intaglio, aquatint; the words conjure up thoughts of the old
masters, foreign places, secret processes. Etching began life from
the etched patterns armourers used to decorate suits of armour.
Historic churches the world over are decorated with engravings as
permanent works of art, where paint might deteriorate over
centuries. And the forerunners of the seaside postcard were
engravings and etchings, which produce similar results but use
different processes.
Watercolours and oils are easily recognised and understood,
but etching is an equally skilled art, although less well known. It
is a precise art using rather imprecise materials, and Roger St
Barbe has been perfecting his skills in Colyton for the past 15
years.
“The processes I use in my etching haven’t changed much since
the 15th century,” Roger says. “A metal plate – I use zinc, but
copper can also be used – is coated with what is called ‘hard
ground’; for me, that is wax mixed with bitumen. This is hardened,
and then I draw onto the ‘ground’ the image I want to produce using
a needle, working through the ground to the surface of the metal
plate. When the metal plate is dipped in acid, the acid bites into
the plate where I have exposed it with my needle, creating grooves.
It looks much like the work of an engraver, although I do not
actually cut into the metal.”
So, why etching? “My parents were both artists, and my father
went on to become an art historian. One day, when I was about 12
years old, I found a rather strange-looking machine made of wood and
metal with a wheel-type handle in the attic of my family home. I
asked what it was and was told it was an antique etching press. It
fired my imagination and I wanted to find out more. It was quite
small and I have it on display in my gallery to this day, although
the etching press I use now is larger.”
So, art college was the next step? “Not at all. I graduated
from Cambridge University with a degree in German and Dutch. I am
not a trained artist, although I have always painted, apart from
that time in early teenage years when most young people rebel,”
Roger laughs. “Neither have I ever had a lesson in how to etch. But
I looked at etchings in museums to see how it was done. I then
experimented, and with my sister who is also an artist, took a
market stall in Greenwich Market, London, to sell my etchings when I
was in my early twenties.”
It has been said that when etching and engraving were
developed they were the photocopying of their day. “In a way, yes,
in that the etched plate can be used over and over again. I use the
aquatint process, which involves powdered resin and heat to produce
tones, not colour as many people think from the word ‘aquatint’. I
dip my plates, usually ten times, which gives different tones. For
me, aquatint’s attractiveness is the simplicity of tones. After
making a monochrome print I then colour it by hand with watercolour
paints, so that each etching is a unique work of art. I don’t really
follow etching ‘fashions’ but simply do what I want to do in the way
I want to do it. People seem to like them and find them attractive.”
Roger’s etchings are certainly attractive. They have a
soothing quality, their colours soft and natural – lilacs and
mauves, powder blues, soft pinks, sage greens; the sorts of shade
reflected on a sunny winter’s day rather than the brighter, gaudier
colours of summer. Roger’s seascapes and rural scenes are very
popular, and his work can be seen in galleries in Beer, Lyme Regis
and Honiton, as well as in his own gallery.
Roger has also had many successful one-man shows – Cambridge
and London as well as locally, and he has exhibited at the Royal
Academy Summer Exhibition.
“I had always loved the countryside, looking at it, being in
it, without actually thinking about its component parts. And then I
married,” Roger says with a smile, “and I found that my wife had an
interest in and knowledge of wild flowers, and she passed on that
interest to me, so that I began to notice flowers, learn their
names. It was a short step then to etching them. I approached this
in an academic way and I like to think my flower etchings are
botanically correct. And I do my drawings outdoors, always, etching
straight onto a prepared plate. I would far rather be sitting on a
cliff top or at the side of the hedge in some country lane than I
would indoors in a studio, working from a photograph. Working this
way makes my work more objective, sharper, because I am not a
copyist. I don’t think many artists today produce etchings in the
style and way that I do; I certainly haven’t met any others.”
Roger hosts exhibitions by other artists about five times a
year. He is also a picture framer. “I started framing my own work
because I wanted to paint the frames, often in acrylic, so it made
sense to make use of the framing equipment to do work for other
artists.” On the table in Roger’s gallery is a small pile of books –
Marshwood Vale and Abbotsbury by poet David Bushrod for which Roger
did the illustrations. “Some of the etchings I did especially to
match the poetry. The framing and the illustrating gives balance to
my artistic life – it can be quite isolating as I have to
concentrate hard on the actual drawing process because I do it back
to front, mirror image.” Back to front? For someone who has trouble
drawing a straight line properly, this is mind-boggling.
“This is quite normal for etchers; it is how it is. But the
first five minutes are the hardest. I am looking at a scene or a
flower in the normal way, but my hand draws it backwards, which
confuses the mind for a short time. But the mind is a wonderful
instrument and things soon settle down and seeing something in one
plane and drawing it in another becomes quite normal very quickly. I
love to just take off in my camper van and find a quiet spot and
draw.”
An ancient process etching may be, but in the skilled hands
of Roger St Barbe it is still very much alive. And Roger has moved
etching on a notch in his own way. “Ah yes,” he says, pointing to an
exquisite study of flowers and grasses growing down the sides of a
cliff, “three-dimensional etching. The printing is done flat, of
course, then bent and folded, and box-framed.”
Those of you reading this article who know and understand the
principals of etching/aquatint cannot fail to admire the artistry
and skill and innovation of Roger St Barbe. And those of you who,
perhaps, may have mistaken his etchings for watercolours, will, I
hope, have a better appreciation of the processes Roger is so
skilled at in producing his beautiful and collectable works. Roger
can be contacted on
Tel: 01297 553805, www.dolphinhousegallery.co.uk
|
| |
| AUTHOR: Linda Mitchelmore |
|
| |
 |
| | |
|
