Printmakers' Secrets

This book comprises contributions from individual printmakers, richly illustrated with examples of their work and studios. Each of the nearly seventy participants (all members of London's Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, including several Royal Academicians) has been allocated a double page in which to offer an intimate insight into his or her working procedures, giving the reader the illusion of witnessing - behind the scenes as it were - the daily creative striving of the artist and the patient technical procedures that often underpin it. Their revelations range from the story of a near encounter with Picasso to the benefits of S. W. Hayter's uncompromising tuition at the celebrated Atelier 17 and from the taxing preparation of a mezzotint plate to the acceptance of the sometimes unforeseen but ultimately happy outcome of printing large collagraph images. An exhibition related to this book ('Out of the Sketchbook') will be held at the Bankside Gallery in London to coincide with the book's publication. This is a valuable resource for students, practising printmakers, and collectors of artists' original prints.