GEORGE IRVINE

I am often exploring the same qualities in a photograph as I would with a painting. Chance, light, movement and colour are all words that come to mind. Finding something remarkable in the everyday or overlooked is an ongoing project. I have recently been using photoshop to layer photographs in order to evoke ambiguous qualities. I have recently been experimenting with the ephemeral character of sunlight, condensation  and brush marks. It has been a revelation to be using ‘Genesis Imaging’ in London who are printing editions for my recent work. These include acrylic face mount, giclee prints on archival paper and the Chromaluxe process. Editions are 1/5 or 1/10 depending on the image.

Through my time spent teaching, an interest in ‘the object in Art’ developed because I made and encouraged students to build a range of Still Life set ups. Eventually the more traditional set ups made that transition into ‘installations’ that could be interpreted as sculpture or works of Art in their own right. I began to question the idea of setting something up and then making a photograph or a painting of it. What could it add? Had the group of objects actually begun to occupy the realms of sculpture? It is an area I continue to admire and explore. With the help of the sculptor and friend, Hamish Mackie, I constructed of an armature. This enabled me to work on a clay sculpture back in my studio that was based on drawings of my Father’s hand during his final hours of life. Hamish kindly set up a meeting at Lockbund foundry near Banbury and they have made 3 bronzes from the cast. I look forward to making another sculpture.

Since secondary School I have worked with lithography as well as traditional etching techniques such as drypoint, aquatint and using acid to bite the mark into the metal plate. However whilst working in the Art Department at Stowe School we introduced a safer and more technological approach to printmaking that involves etching into a Solar Plate (photopolmer) using natural sunlight or an ultra violet lightbox. A brilliant course directed by Susie Turner reignited my interest in ‘photo-etching’ and I am about to set up my own print space in the studio. I have several framed etchings available for sale.