Jacques Barraband Animal Prints

Leonard Merchant's mezzotint, "Snail in Cup" is inscribed for fellow artist, Fritz Eichenberg. While a student at the Central School for Arts and Crafts in London, a young Leonard Marchant found an engraving rocker in a cupboard and proceeded to turn himself into a master of the painstaking art of mezzotinting. Marchant, who has died in Shrewsbury aged 70, grew up in Simonstown, the Royal Navy's enclave in South Africa. Though his first job was as a parliamentary messenger, he taught himself to paint and, aged 19, was given a one-man show in Cape Town. Fired by this success, he left for England to study painting and, he claimed, to escape the stifling home atmosphere created by his Catholic mother and aunts. (His father was killed in the second world war.) Without contacts in London, he phoned Jacob Epstein, whose recommendation resulted in a grant to study briefly at the Central School. It was later, when studying full-time at the Central, that he saw the mezzotints of the Japanese master, Yozo Hamaguchi, in a London gallery. He was hooked. Creating a mezzotint is tedious in the extreme. The copper plate must first be prepared with a "rocker" which roughens the surface. A plate may be "rocked" 30 or 40 times. The rough texture is then reduced with a burnisher and a scraper, allowing the print a range of tones from velvety black through the greys to white. Marchant's plates could be months in the making. But the technical demands were the least of his worries. In its 18th- and 19th-century heyday, mezzotint was solely a reproductive medium, for copying masters such as Reynolds and Turner. The development of photography rendered it unfashionable, and by the 1960s the technique, known as la manière anglaise, was a bygone medium. Marchant, by now a teacher in printmaking at the Central, began to create original mezzotints with a colleague, Radavan Kraguly. A perfectionist, he seemed to revel in the straitjacket procedure. Perhaps it was the metaphor of bringing darkness out of light that appealed to this straight-talking, sometimes sombre, man, who would suddenly relax and light up like a gleaming hue on one of his prints. His work was of squares and triangles with the occasional cat, black and ominous, and carefully arranged still lifes, featuring plants, a seed pod, a pot he might have bought at auction to celebrate the sale of a print. There were one-man shows, notably at the Bankside Gallery. He sold well at the Royal Academy summer exhibition, was a Florence Biennale prizewinner, spent a fellowship year at the British School in Rome, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. But making mezzotints was not a paying job. Marchant and his South African wife...

Izzy, a charming characterful terrier stands alert, holding her ball in her mouth. Colour etching hand made and printed by the artist. Helen Fay's art for sale online and in our gallery at Wychwood Art. Animals have always been at the heart of my work. I find the form, movement and behaviour of the creatures I draw a source of limitless fascination. I love the idea of them watching me, watching them as I draw. I hope my appreciation of the sentience and character of the animals I draw comes across in my work. Over my career I have drawn everything from primates to penguins, dogs, ostriches and even an echidna. These days dogs are my main focus, mostly because I adore dogs but also because they are such an integral part of life. I am delighted by the theory that humans and dogs co evolved, we wouldn’t be what we are without them and vice versa. I try to pare my images down to a balanced simplicity that directs attention to the subject of the picture. I try to balance the subject and the space it occupies, giving each equal importance. Light is hugely important to my work, I imagine my subject in three dimensions as I draw and the light describes the musculature and texture that gives the drawing it’s presence and grounds it in the picture. I aim to capture a pause, a moment where whatever I draw looks like it could wander off or leap up any minute. My influences include Japanese prints, Chinese and Japanese brush drawing and the European artists who were influenced by Japan. I am really excited by composition, by artists like Bonnard and Leon Spilliaert. I have long been a fan of Munch for his direct mark-making, colour and intensity and at the other end of the spectrum, Hammershoi for his limited palette, sense of space and calm. I am interested in black and white photography and film and have recently discovered and been amazed by the films of Yasujiro Ozu...

Python is a hand-pulled mezzotint in an edition of 25. This is #7/25. Jacob Crook was born in St. Louis, MO in 1985. Crook works primarily in the intagli...

Artist: John James Audubon (American, 1785-1851) Title: "Snow Bunting" (Plate CLXXXIX - 189; part No. 38) Portfolio: The Birds of America, Havell Edition ...

Takashi Murakami Flowers Skateboard Deck: A collaboration between Takashi Murakami and his friend, the rising Japanese artist 'Madsaki' (bio below). The impression is an urban twist...

Andy Warhol Vintage Large Rosenthal Bowl (Unicorn), ca. 1991 Large Silkscreen Glass bowl (authorized signature fired onto plate) Warhol's signature is printed on the plate 21 × 21 × ...

RARE vintage Keith Haring Skateboard Deck 2004: This timeless, limited edition Keith Haring skateboard deck was published in 2004 as a result of the collaboration between the legend...

Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, Plate No. 39; Unidentified tree with moth, caterpillar and pupa. The Netherlands: 1705....

René Magritte Décalcomanie Skateboard Decks, 2018 7-ply Canadian Maplewood with screen-print (Set of 2) 31 1/2 × 8 in 80 × 40.3 cm Edition of 250 Part of a limited edition set Inclu...

Artist: Hunt Slonem, American (1951 - ) Title: Three Deer Year: 1980 Medium: Screenprint, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: AP 30 Image Size: 24 x 32 inches Size: 26 in. ...

Takashi Murakami Flowers Skateboard Decks (set of 2 works): The black & white deck marks a collaboration between Takashi Murakami and his friend, the rising Japanese artist 'Madsaki' (bio below). The impression is an urban twist on Takashi Murakami’s otherwise highly polished flowers motif - a beautiful juxtaposition between two very different styles from two masters of their craft. This limited work was published by Murakami’s Kaikai Kiki Gallery Japan in 2017. The blue was published circa 2017 in conjunction with the Murakami exhibit: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg, MCA Chicago. A brilliant set that makes for vibrant, one of a kind wall-art that hangs with ease. Medium: Silkscreen on 2 individual Maple Wood skateboard decks. Crisp colors. Dimensions: 8.0 x 31 inches (20.5 x 79 cm) Condition: each housed in its original packaging; excellent overall condition. Each from a sold out limited edition of unknown; stamped by the artist on the reverse of each. Perhaps Murakami's most iconic motif, these candy-colored, smiling flowers came into the artist's work when he was preparing for his entrance exams for the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts, and he embraced the form over nine years teaching prep-school students to draw flowers. One of the most acclaimed artists to emerge from postwar Asia, Takashi Murakami—“the Warhol of Japan”—is known for his contemporary Pop synthesis of fine art and popular culture, particularly his use of a boldly graphic and colorful anime and manga cartoon style. MADSAKI (b. Japan 1974) Joining Murakami has led to a rapid evolution of Madsaki. Now with three Kaikai exhibitions under his belt––Hickory Dickory Dock; Here Today, Gone Tomorrow; and MADSAKI Says “Yo! snipe1 & UFO907, Get Your Asses Over Here!” Madsaki has made a firm imprint on the Murakami canon. In his introduction to Madsaki’s second solo exhibit, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow from 2017, Murakami jokingly points out how his direction and guidance successfully shaped Madsaki’s work. While the debt Madsaki owes to Murakami is patently clear, in an abrupt turnabout it appears that the apprentice guides the master in some ways as well...

Emidio di Nola, original Italian pasta poster. Size 19" x 25.5". Professional acid-free archival linen-backed; in excellent condition; ready to frame....