James Boyd Brent has been beavering away in the intaglio studio at the Bluecoat for the past 10 days. On Saturday he worked with Frieda and Jen to re-instate the use of ferric chloride to etch copper and since then he has settled down to work on two etchings.
James begins an etching by drawing, taking photographs and creating watercolours. He refers to his visual note-taking and research when he draws on the plate. He may scrape bac, repeatedly re-etching, or engrave using a wide range of etching needles and engraving burins including roulettes and multi-tools before deciding a piece is finished.
This residency ends on Friday, but we hope he will take another break from his job as Professor of Printmaking in Minneapolis, USA, to see come back, see how we are getting on and make more contacts across the North West next year.