Rachael Kantaris | Drift, 2021
Etching
Media Dimensions: 57 x 63 cm
Image Dimensions: 39 x 39 cm
Edition of 15
Framed/unframed
Rachael Kantaris was born in Australia and grew up in Cornwall. She studied at Falmouth School of Art and Brighton University, completing a Degree in Fine Art and Contemporary Dance, and MA in Printmaking. She shows nationally and internationally and has travelled widely, working in studios in Berlin and Melbourne. She was invited by the British Council to exhibit and curate an exhibition of contemporary printmaking in Manila, also teaching at the University of the Philippines. She teaches and exhibits regularly and runs the Porthmeor Print Workshop in St Ives which she also set up. My work is driven by a fascination for colour. I want the viewer to be seduced and drawn into the piece, and for there to be a sense of movement in which the colours resonate. Etching is a very physical medium, often involving quite textured and deeply embossed areas, and I explore this sculptural quality in my work. I like the contradiction between the craft of working with the metal, and the very painterly image which I aim to achieve on the paper. Above all I love the richness of etching - it has an almost sumptuous quality, a soft, velvety surface texture unique to this medium. My imagery develops from a desire to explore something ambiguous; a sense of place, a perspective, an emotion, a colour. From these beginnings the piece becomes an adventure, not knowing until I finish where it’s going to end up. After the alchemy comes weeks of changing relationships of colours, but what is unique about the etching process is that none of this struggle shows and the finished piece has a freshness & glow about it. Ultimately I do it because it’s exciting; there’s something magical about the moment you finally lift the image off the press & you’ve got it right.
Etching
Media Dimensions: 57 x 63 cm
Image Dimensions: 39 x 39 cm
Edition of 15
Framed/unframed
Rachael Kantaris was born in Australia and grew up in Cornwall. She studied at Falmouth School of Art and Brighton University, completing a Degree in Fine Art and Contemporary Dance, and MA in Printmaking. She shows nationally and internationally and has travelled widely, working in studios in Berlin and Melbourne. She was invited by the British Council to exhibit and curate an exhibition of contemporary printmaking in Manila, also teaching at the University of the Philippines. She teaches and exhibits regularly and runs the Porthmeor Print Workshop in St Ives which she also set up. My work is driven by a fascination for colour. I want the viewer to be seduced and drawn into the piece, and for there to be a sense of movement in which the colours resonate. Etching is a very physical medium, often involving quite textured and deeply embossed areas, and I explore this sculptural quality in my work. I like the contradiction between the craft of working with the metal, and the very painterly image which I aim to achieve on the paper. Above all I love the richness of etching - it has an almost sumptuous quality, a soft, velvety surface texture unique to this medium. My imagery develops from a desire to explore something ambiguous; a sense of place, a perspective, an emotion, a colour. From these beginnings the piece becomes an adventure, not knowing until I finish where it’s going to end up. After the alchemy comes weeks of changing relationships of colours, but what is unique about the etching process is that none of this struggle shows and the finished piece has a freshness & glow about it. Ultimately I do it because it’s exciting; there’s something magical about the moment you finally lift the image off the press & you’ve got it right.
Etching
Media Dimensions: 57 x 63 cm
Image Dimensions: 39 x 39 cm
Edition of 15
Framed/unframed
Rachael Kantaris was born in Australia and grew up in Cornwall. She studied at Falmouth School of Art and Brighton University, completing a Degree in Fine Art and Contemporary Dance, and MA in Printmaking. She shows nationally and internationally and has travelled widely, working in studios in Berlin and Melbourne. She was invited by the British Council to exhibit and curate an exhibition of contemporary printmaking in Manila, also teaching at the University of the Philippines. She teaches and exhibits regularly and runs the Porthmeor Print Workshop in St Ives which she also set up. My work is driven by a fascination for colour. I want the viewer to be seduced and drawn into the piece, and for there to be a sense of movement in which the colours resonate. Etching is a very physical medium, often involving quite textured and deeply embossed areas, and I explore this sculptural quality in my work. I like the contradiction between the craft of working with the metal, and the very painterly image which I aim to achieve on the paper. Above all I love the richness of etching - it has an almost sumptuous quality, a soft, velvety surface texture unique to this medium. My imagery develops from a desire to explore something ambiguous; a sense of place, a perspective, an emotion, a colour. From these beginnings the piece becomes an adventure, not knowing until I finish where it’s going to end up. After the alchemy comes weeks of changing relationships of colours, but what is unique about the etching process is that none of this struggle shows and the finished piece has a freshness & glow about it. Ultimately I do it because it’s exciting; there’s something magical about the moment you finally lift the image off the press & you’ve got it right.
