by Heike Roesel.
Etching on acid free fine art printing paper.
Dimensions: 53 x 53 cm. Limited edition of 10.
Inspired by the variety of textures and delicateness found amongst plants that grow in gaps between pavement and walls and other ‘uncultivated’ areas, my etching ‘Grasses' is celebrating wild flowers and grasses that grow wherever they are left alone to do so. We need more wild flower, meadows and gardens for wild flowers to take over! Like in the etching "Summer Garden 1" I used the soft ground technique to create this etching. The plate is inked up anew for every print taken. Some small colour variations occur within this small edition. Each etching is an original, printed by me on acid free fine art printing paper in my studio in Brighton/ UK. The image size is 35cm x 35cm with a paper margin of 8cm all around.
About the artist: Originally from Rüsselsheim, Germany, Heike Roesel studied Fine Art Printmaking BA (hons) at University of Brighton. She started her printmaking practice doing lithography, but eventually switched to etching which has been her medium of choice since. The process and the materials inspire the way Heike develops her imagery. She starts with a loose idea for an image, clarifying it through drawing. But the real development starts with working on the plate, pushing the initial idea through to a conclusion. The resulting imagery is never a representation of the circumstance or object that inspired it, but an improvisation of her initial idea, becoming ‘a world in it’s own right’. With her imagery she aims to inspire an observer’s own imagination to find their own individual ‘picture’. In 2009 Heike set up Studio B5 with Jo Riddell, Richard Denne, Margaret Betts and Jane Sampson, all fine art printmakers, printing in different mediums. There she developed her own way of using the alternative technique of Acrylic Resist Etching, which is now in use by the studio.
This work is shown at Atelier Beside the Sea as part of the Atelier OPEN 2023 exhibition.