Our opening hours are 10.00 - 5.30 weekdays and 11.00-2.00 Saturdays.
We will be closed on Saturdays in August and for the last two weeks of August.
Please call for further information +44(0)207 439 1866 or email info@alancristea.com
What is Droit de Suite ?
Droit de Suite or artist re-sale right is a new EU directive which dictates that living artists must receive a percentage of any onward resale of their artworks from the seller. It does not apply to the first sale and we are happy to provide more details on request.
Can I make an appointment to come and see work that is not on display?
At any given time only a tiny proportion of the works we have in stock are actually on display in the gallery. If you would like to view other works with a view to purchasing, an appointment is not necesssary, but an advance phone call allows us to prepare for your visit.
I am a student and would like to see work by.... ?
We will always try and accomodate requests, but this is subject to time and availability. We have a changing monthly exhibition program and this is the best way to see works by our artists.
I am an artist and would like you to exhibit my work...?
Unfortunately we cannot consider work brought into the gallery speculatively. We will always try and look at images sent in by email or on disc, but cannot guarantee a response. We currently work with over 40 artists and plan our exhibition schedules two years in advance.
Do you sell catalogues?
The gallery has an extensive catalogue publishing programme and these are available to buy from the gallery and from our online shop.
Etching is an umbrella term for a collection of intaglio (incised) printing techniques. It refers to variety of methods all of which aim to create an 'etched' or 'bitten' mark on a metal plate, which can then be inked and printed onto a support (usually paper). An etching plate is most commonly made of copper and the term 'etching' refers to the action of acid literally biting into the plate to create a incised mark.
The simplest form of etching is where a metal plate (traditionally a prepared copper plate) is covered with a thin layer of acid-resistant ground (the 'ground' is a thin, acid-resistant liquid or waxy coating that once applied dries onto the plate surface. It is sometimes referred to as a varnish). The image is drawn into and through the ground using a sharp tool called a burin, exposing the metal plate beneath. The surface of the plate is then wiped clean and dipped into an acid-bath where the exposed areas/lines are bitten away by the acid. The areas that remain covered in the ground repel the acid are not altered. The plate is then cleaned and inked, and wiped again. The ink stays in the bitten grooves and is transferred to damp paper by means of pressure through an etching press.
What is hard-ground etching?
This is an etching process where the acid-resistant ground in which the image is cut is literally hard ground. This ground is a compound, traditionally made of beeswax and asphaltum, which is supplied in a ball shape. This is applied onto a hot metal printing plate where it is spread evenly over the surface. Sometimes hard-ground is supplied in liquid form. The image is drawn through the hard-ground and the plate bitten, inked and printed as with an etching.
What is soft-ground etching?
This is another form of etching in which the plate is prepared in much the same way only using a different kind of ground. This is a waxy ground which allows the artist, after laying a piece of paper on top, to draw the image with a pencil or crayon. The ground, under the pressure of the pencil, adheres to the paper which is then lifted off, exposing the copper underneath. The plate is then bitten and inked in the same way as an etching. Soft-ground allows an artist to work on a plate as if drawing on paper.
What is a lift-ground etching?
This is a general term for an etching process in which the artist paints directly on an ungrounded plate with a water solution containing either sugar, soap, or salt. This solution can also be mixed with black ink to increase visibility whilst painting onto the plate. Once the image is painted on the plate, the entire plate is then coated with an acid-resistant varnish. Once dry, the plate is immersed in warm water, the sugar mixture melts, lifting away part of the varnish. The plate is then grained for texture using an aquatint dust and dipped in acid. Where the varnish has been lifted, the acid bites into the plate. Where the varnish is intact the acid cannot bite into the plate and no mark is made. The plate is then inked, wiped and printed as in etching. In printing, the ink gathers in the etched area and creates a rich black tone on the paper.
What is photo-etching?
This process uses metal plates which have been coated and then exposed to light using an acid resistant photo-sensitive emulsion. The process evolved from photogravure, but uses a half-tone screen to break the image into dots of tone. Photo-etchings use a sheet of photo-sensitive gelatine which is exposed to a half-tone negative image. The gelatine hardens selectively upon exposure to light and is then processed in warm water. This removes any unhardened exposed material. The remaining gelatine adheres to the metal plate and acts as a resist during the etching process. The dark areas of the image are etched, thus creating an intaglio plate for printing that is a direct translation of the photograph. The result is an image formed of dots of varying sizes rather than a continuous tone as in photo-gravure. By using a positive instead of a negative, the plate can be printed intaglio to produce the photo-etching.
What is spit-bite etching?
This involves painting strong acid directly onto the aquatint ground of a prepared etching plate. Depending upon the time the acid is left on the plate, light to dark tones can be achieved. To control the acid application, saliva, ethylene glycol or Kodak Photoflo solution can by used. Traditionally, a clean brush was coated with saliva, dipped into nitric acid and brushed onto the ground, hence the term “spitbite.” An earlier but related technique, involved painting the plate directly with acid, essentially drawing with acid rather than ink, and then washing it off when the desired effect had been achieved. The plate is then washed, inked and printed as with an aquatint.
What is an aquatint?
This is an etching process used mainly for creating tone based images. Fine or coarse, acid-resisting dust particles (usually derived from resin), are sprinkled over a polished plate, this is then heated and the dry dust melts, sticking to the plate. The aquatint dust acts as a form of 'ground' but is not a solid coating and the dust particles can be extremely fine, or very coarse depending on the required surface texture. It is normal to lay the dust all over the plate (if the artist wants an even tone, the printer creates a resin dust storm in an aquatint box so that the particles will sift onto the plate evenly), and then block out the areas that are not for printing with a varnish. During the etching, the acid bites around the particles creating a fine, random texture in the plate which holds the ink. This results in the printing of a near continuous tone of ink.
What is a sugar-lift aquatint?
Sugar-lift or lift-ground aquatint is a variation on the above. It describes the process whereby the artist paints an image directly onto a printing plate using a solution of water and sugar. Although transparent, this solution can be mixed with coloured ink to increase visibility whilst painting onto the plate (although this colour bears no relation to the final printed colour). When the painting is completed, the entire plate is then coated with an acid-resistant varnish. The plate is immersed in warm water causing the areas painted with the sugar solution to dissolve and the varnish covering those areas to literally 'lift' away. The resulting exposed areas reflect those originally painted with the sugar solution.
The plate is then grained for texture using an aquatint dust (as described above) and dipped into acid. Where the varnish has been lifted, the acid bites into the plate and where the varnish is intact the acid cannot bite and no mark is made. The plate is inked and wiped causing the ink to gather in the etched areas whilst being cleaned away from the unbitten copper. The inked plate is laid face-up onto an etching press and dampened paper is applied on top of it under the pressure of the press. The aquatinted image is thus transferred (in reverse) onto the paper.
What is a lithograph?
Lithography is a Plano graphic (flat surface) printing technique. It relies on the fact that oil and water naturally repel each other. The image is created by drawing with a greasy lithographic crayon or ink onto a limestone block (and more recently, zinc or aluminium plates). The stone is then dampened and the surface prepared for printing by rolling the dampened stone with an oil-based printing ink which adheres only to the greasy image areas and is repelled by the damp unworked areas. The ink is then transferred to the printing matrix by means of the pressure of a flat bed press.
Photo-lithography uses the same printing technology as lithography except that the image is transferred to the stone or metal photographically by preparing the surface with a light sensitive compound. In order to create the appearance of continuous tone, the image must be broken down into a pattern of extremely small dots. Early examples attempted to use the irregularity of a roughened limestone to create a grain in the image.
Offset lithography was developed for commercial mass production. This process uses a flexible metal plate onto which the image is transferred using a photographic technique and can be a variation of photo-lithography. After the plate is processed, it is attached to a circular drum on the offset press. The press first rolls a thin coating of water onto the plate, ink then passed over the plate onto a roller, transferring the image onto another roller surface and finally onto the sheet of paper.
What is a screenprint?
In screenprinting, the image is transferred onto a tightly stretched 'screen' of fine woven mesh (originally silk), blocking out the areas which are not to be printed. This can be done by a variety of means including the use of hand-cut stencils to mask out areas or alternatively by painting directly onto the mesh using a medium that will repel the printing ink (i.e. oil based if using water based printing inks). Once the screen is complete, it is placed in a frame above the piece of paper. A layer of ink is then deposited along the far edge of the screen and drawn across, forcing it through the mesh onto the paper, usually with a flat rubber edged tool (squeegee). The masked areas are non-porous and do not allow the ink to penetrate.
In a photo-screenprint, the image is transferred to the screen by photographic means. The stencil is created photographically by exposing a layer of sensitised gelatine through a transparency of the image. The dark areas of the image will protect the gelatine and will remain soft and are easily rinsed away. The remaining gelatine acts as a stencil.
What is a linocut?
Linocuts are printed from a linoleum block, usually backed with wood for reinforcement. The linoleum is handled in exactly the same way as a wood block but, since it does not have a wood grain, the surface of the resulting print will have less texture. The material takes all types of lines but is most suited to large designs with contrasting tints.
What is a woodcut?
The technique for making woodcuts by the relief process was discovered by the Chinese. It is the oldest form of printmaking, and appeared in China about a thousand years before the first prints ever appeared in Europe. The principal of the woodcut is similar to the workings of a rubber stamp. The artist cuts away the areas on the woodblock that he does not want to print, leaving raised (or in relief) the image that is to be printed. The woodblock is inked and applied to paper using pressure and the image is thus transferred.
What is a drypoint?
Drypoints are prints created by scratching a line into a metal plate (usually copper) with a needle or other sharp tool. This technique allows the greatest freedom of line, from the most delicate hairline to the heaviest gash. In drypoint, the burr is not scraped away from the surface but stays on the surface of the plate to print a rich velvety deposit of ink until it is worn away by repeated printings. Drypoint plates (particularly the burr on them) wear more quickly than etched or engraved plates and therefore allow for fewer satisfactory impressions and show far greater differences from first impression to last. Drypoint is often used in conjunction with etching to give some of the line work a greater richness.
What is a mezzotint?
This is another etching process, whereby the entire surface of the metal plate is initially roughened with a tool called a ‘rocker’, creating an even, continuous texture. Each recess throws up tiny amounts of displaced metal known as a ‘burr’ which hold ink and create a rich velvety quality in the darkest printed areas. An image is then formed by scraping and burnishing the plate in varying degrees, to create shade and light from the dark background.
What is an engraving?
Engraving is a process in which a metal plate (usually copper) is directly marked or incised with a pointed tool called a burin. A burin works on a copper plate like a plough on a field. As it is moved across the plate, copper shavings, called burr, are forced to either side of the lines being created and these are usually cleaned (wiped) from the plate before inking. An engraved line may be deep or fine, has a sharp and clean appearance and tapers to an end. Once the lines have been engraved and the burr cleaned away, the plate is inked (literally ink is wiped over the plate using tarlatan and then wiped back until only the engraved lines hold ink and the remaining surface is clean) and then placed onto a printing press. A sheet of dampened paper is laid over the plate and both are put under pressure through a printing press. The ink is transferred to the paper as a reverse image and this is the print. As the press pushes the plate into the paper it creates a depression called the plate mark. This is visible on engravings and etchings except where the paper has been subsequently trimmed within the plate mark or where the printing plate size is larger than the sheet of paper.
What is carborundum?
This is the common household name for silicon carbide. Traditionally used by printers to grind down lithographic stones, it can also be used as part of the creative printmaking process. By grinding the carborundum into a course or a fine powder and mixing with a PVA glue, the artist can create a malleable paste which can be literally painted onto a printing plate (usually perspex rather than metal). Alternatively the PVA can be applied to the plate directly and the carborundum dust sprinkled on. This then dries into a hard, relief surface which can be inked in multiple colours (the carborundum, being granular, absorbs dense quantities of ink). When dampened paper is place on top of the worked plate and both are put through an etching press, the ink is transferred and the relief areas emboss the paper surface. The resulting printed areas are heavily textured and retain the painterly nature of the original application.