Matthew Carden Still-life 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...

Yellowpop after Andy Warhol Neon Flowers lighted Wall Hanging/Sign, 2022 Neon flex material, consisting of PVC or Silicon piping with LED lights mounted on a recycled acrylic board Edition 258/500 (numbered on COA) Box is plate signed; accompanied by official numbered COA authorized by the Warhol Foundation...

Eclosion Rose Series Kozo Inoue (1937- ) was born in Osaka, Japan & currently resides in France. Kozo is well know artist for his beautiful, museum quality prints, he uses silk screens...

Whimsical 1970's hand painted botanical silkscreen of baby's tears plant by Babette Joslyn Bauman Eddleston (American, 1922-1990). This limited edition screen print has splashes of color painted in by hand. The edition number 96/270 is written lower left. It is titled "Baby's Tears" and signed "Babette Eddleston...

A contemporary photograph of a BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN "BORN IN THE USA" cassette tape. This is s the first release in the much anticipated series "The Music" by pop Artists Destro These i...

Vintage Floral study etching titled "Weeds" by Marina Payot (American, 20th century), 1983. Titled, signed, and dated lower edge. Artists Proof designation. Unframed. Image: 11.75"H ...

"Basquiat"is a photomosaic artwork by Destro. The first release in a series mosaic works called "Icons". Destro has created large prints which are made up of many hundreds of smalle...

This work, by Fidel Santos, depicts a Pompeiian fresco resplendent with lush fruit trees and avian life against a backdrop of idyllic hills. The vibrant c...

Whimsical 1970's hand painted botanical silkscreen of a spider plant by Babette Joslyn Bauman Eddleston (American, 1922-1990). This limited edition screen print has splashes of color painted in by hand. The edition number 22/270 is written lower left. It is titled "Spider Plant" and signed "Babette Eddleston...

"The VHS" by pop Artist Destro. We all remember those iconic nights at the video store. Pop artist DESTRO once again encapsulates one of our favorite past times in a fine art con...

Set of Six Hand Coloured Botanical Prints/Lithographs and Engravings Published by G. Ridgway, S. Curtis, W. Baxter and W. Fitch Early Mid 19th Century Size: image: 8.5 x 5.5 inches P...

"ELVIS BY ANDY WARHOL" is a photomosaic artwork by Destro. Destro has created large prints which are made up of many hundreds of smaller images. Archival photographic paper Framin...