nicholas nicola etchings


 2014 ETCHINGS


As new etchings are produced they will be added to this page. However, it should be noted that all of the etchings ( except for Readymade Universe) are based on the water currents of the river. 

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'RIVER RHYTHM.'  (Cooks River. Sydney)

20 cm X 30 cm B&W. aquatint. sugarlift. zinc plate.

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'CURRENTS OF THE UNIVERSE'   

13" X 23" cm sepia. drypoint. aquatint. sugarlift. zinc plate

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'Currents of the Universe.' 

T/P - Trial Proof


20cm X 30cm sepia sugarlift aquatint. zinc plate. 

The original plate for the final etching. It was cut down and given higher contrast for the final image after much reworking and much re-biting in the copper sulphate/salt solution bath. The plate thinned considerably eating at the edges needing it to be cut down to come up with a more succint image. However, I also like the original plate and perhaps in the future will transfer it to a solar plate giving it some more contrast in the process. Below is another image of the Trial Proof. 

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'READYMADE UNIVERSE.' 

6" X 4"  sepia. aquatint. copperplate

The image is based on a natural erosion of the plate which included the detioration of blockout that had originally been placed on the plate in preparation of doing another image that never eventuated. Thus there was no use of sugarlift in the production of the image.   Instead following Duchampian aesthetics what one has here is a 'readymade universe.'   The original title of the etching was Stellar Universe yet changed to better befit the 'chance' unpolished circumstances of its creation. Although a somewhat abstract experimental work one may wish to envisage or note its rising stellar supernova pillars and a celestial object that maybe a moon or planet .

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'WHITE MATTER, DARK MATTER.' 

 Two zinc plates. 40cm X 15cm (each plate 20 cm X 15cm) sepia/black & white. aquatint. sugarlift.

   I was originally pleased with the first states of the two etching plates that were used for this etching. Then I felt that the general effect was too flat and one-dimensional. I thus aquatinted the whole of the plates and burnished the white areas to create a softer, meditative appearance which also gave the works more depth. A sense of the eternal is thus better reflected especially when in the title I am making reference to the Universe. Also it was commented that the white areas seemed like ‘bone’. I thought that was a good observation as the white areas can be seen as solids in interplay with the dark areas. The viewer will wish to discern what areas  are ephemeral and what is ‘touchable’ for physical reality when examined on the quantum level seems to be a multi-dimensional mirage.  Other titles were considered such as Parallel Currents of Multidimensions etc but White Matter, Dark Matter was settled upon befitting the notion of how so much of the known Universe is actually ‘unseen’. A dark mass that still remains a mystery.  

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Below are the two original First States of White Matter Dark Matter.

LIFE and FATE 

RAMBA UNIVERSE (It should be noted the use of the word Ramba in the title derives from an appreciation of the ramba films by the noted New Zealand artist Len Leyes.). 

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'THIS RIVER, A STRONG BROWN GOD'  after T.S. Eliot's The Four Quartets.


Four square etching plates all adding up for an image that is 29 cm X 8 cm sepia. aquatint. sugarlift. drypoint. In the third poem of the Four Quartets titled 'Dry Salvages' T.S. Eliot writes of the river being a 'strong brown god'. 

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'this god the river & this river the cosmos'.

 

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12" X 4" . Two copperplates. black & white. aquatint. sugarlift.  

this god the river refers to the first plate and this river the cosmos refers to the second plate.

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'PARALLEL UNIVERSE'.

 

'Parallel Universe'. sepia/b&W. 11" X 4" aquatint. sugarlift. two zinc plates. 

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Cooks River sketches 

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A much earlier etching of the Cooks River.   "It Will Pass." 

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'COSMIC CURRENTS'. First time notion of currents associated with the universe. In this case the eroding lines on coastal rock at the Botany Bay National Park. 

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EXPERIMENTAL


THIS GOD, THE RIVER & THIS RIVER THE COSMOS.  (A DRAFT 'Work-in-Progress.' unfinished article).

Trial Proofs. (T/P).

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An initial hard edge image considered unsatisfactory yet this 'background' trial proof finally led to the final image  for 'this god the river & this river the cosmos' . (etching plates each 6" x 4"). 


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