ABOUT THE ARTIST
20Questions, Bio and CV.
Want to know what makes this artist tick? 20 tricky questions, 20 short answers Name: Stuart Duffin (that one was easy) Age: Well, my mind still thinks I'm 37, my sense of humour suggests I'm about 12 and my body keeps asking "are you still here?" Birthplace: UK. Occupation: Artist (printmaker, painter and educator). Most important tool: My collection of antique mezzotint rocking tools in conjunction with my razor-sharp scraper...and my coffee pot. Artists or cultural figures who have most influenced you: The classical music of Scots composer Malcolm Lindsay has always been influential on both my work and my state of mind (while working!). Other than that I am less influenced by artists and more by environments, places, circumstances and experiences. Where are you based: I'm split three ways between my home studio in the north-east of Scotland, the Glasgow Print Studio and the Jerusalem Print Workshop in the Middle East. Favourite app: That one that orders pizza. Thing you can't do without: Photoshop! No going back now. Favourite movie of this year: All time favourite movie would be anything by Jacques Tati. What's on your playlist at the moment: Malcolm Lindsays music. I also have a ton of jazz influenced drum'n'bass. The book on your bedside table: "Strange Things Happen", the drummer Stewart Copeland's autobiography. He's a talented and humorous storyteller. Also "The Great Partnership" by Jonathan Sacks. Your work in three words: Shalom, Salaam, Peace (alternatively, forgiveness, compassion, co-existence). Who would you like to collaborate with: I would love to collaborate with the dynamic artist Daria Zapala again. Maybe create some digital images that we can send to each other, play around with and then send them back! That would be fun. Emerging talent to watch out for: I think any emerging visual artist that is willing to learn how to draw (in any form or style) should be given due credit. Then they can turn to whatever they want with genuine authenticity. Biggest challenge to date: It has to be staying sane and at peace in the midst of a manic world...and not using that pizza app too often. Proudest moment: Any moment I realise I am the dad of a doctor (my daughter) and an architect (my son). Next big thing: WW3. Where would you like to be in 10 years time: Still out running on a darkening rainy evening. Bliss. What would you say to your younger self: Remember son, growing old is mandatory, growing UP is optional. Originally published in International Arts Manager 2016, but since updated and amended.
Bio and Curriculum Vitae Stuart Duffin was born in, and lives in the UK. He studied at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, Scotland 1978 – 1982, graduating in fine art printmaking. He has been at the Glasgow Print Studio (GPS) initially as a member since 1982, joining the staff officially in 1984, was Studio Manager from 1989 - 2002 and is now Studio Etching Master. Stuart has been elected to a number of professional arts bodies. He was elected a Fellow of the RE (Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers), an Academician of the RSA (Royal Scottish Academy), and a professional member of the SSA (Society of Scottish Artists). As an artist he works primarily in etching, mezzotint, digital printmaking and oil painting based between RavenEsk Press (home studio in the North East of Scotland), the Glasgow Print Studio and the Jerusalem Print Workshop. As an educator Stuart has presented professional practice seminars and taught specialist printmaking classes at studios, colleges and universities at home and abroad as well as at the GPS, lecturing on Scottish printmaking and his own work. He has been a selector for a range of artist’s opportunities and exhibitions, including the GPS Moscow and Kyoto exchanges, RSA student and annual exhibitions and the National Print Open at the Mall Galleries in London. Awards and elections 2016 Gillies Bequest Award (RSA) for research in Jerusalem. 2012 British Council award for research and presentation in Jerusalem. 2006 Gillies Bequest Award (RSA) for research in Belfast. Elected Academician of the RSA (Royal Scottish Academy) 2004 Artist in residence, Belfast Print Workshop Invited artist British International Miniature Prints exhibition 2000 Award winner at the SSA (Society of Scottish Artists) annual exhibition 1996 Elected an associate of the RSA (Royal Scottish Academy) Exchange artists to the Jerusalem Print Workshop 1995 Elected Fellow of the RE (Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers) Elected professional member of the SSA (Society of Scottish Artists) 1992 Exchange artist to the Senej Print Workshop Moscow, Russia 1991 Elected associate of the RE (Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers) 1989 Award winner, Scottish drawing exhibition, Paisley Museum Award winner, 2nd Irish miniature print exhibition, Dublin Award winner, 1st British miniature print exhibition, Bristol (touring UK) 1987 Scottish Arts Council award to travel and study in Italy 1986 Award winner, 1st Irish miniature print exhibition, Dublin Exhibitions include 2025 Cadaques 45th International Mini Prints, Barcelona. 2022 A Redder Sun - solo exhibition, Glasgow Print Studio. 2021 New York and Miami, SHIM, International Mezzotints 2020 Peace Starts with a Smile - solo exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy 2019 If Angels Cast Shadows – solo exhibition, Compass Gallery, Glasgow and Jerusalem Print Workshop Gallery 2017 Reason or Revelation – solo exhibition, Leith School of Art The Jerusalem Palimpsest – solo exhibition, Glasgow Print Studio. 2013 Reason or Revelation – solo exhibition, Glasgow Print Studio. 40:40 Commissioned artist for Glasgow Print Studio 40th Anniversary exhibition 2011 Invited featured artist, Royal Scottish academy annual exhibition, Edinburgh 2010 Pop goes the Easel, Glasgow Print Studio 2008 National Print Open, Mall Galleries, London 2007 Tabula Rasa - Solo exhibition, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh 2006 New York - Glasgow Print Studio group exhibition 2005 London - Royal Academy summer exhibition. 2004 Glasgow - Out of darkness (international mezzotints) Glasgow Print Studio Gallery I 2003 Seattle - Two international mezzotint artists, Davidson Galleries Edinburgh - Between paradise and the Abyss, solo exhibition, Leith School of Art 2002 London - National Print Open, Mall Galleries 2001 Glasgow - Sacred Science, solo exhibition Glasgow Print Studio 1999 India - Glasgow Print Studio in India, (Mumbai, Barroda Jaipuri, Madras, Hyderabad 1998 Jerusalem - Dreaming of Jerusalem, solo exhibition, Gallery of the Jerusalem Print Workshop 1997 Glasgow - Dreaming of Jerusalem, solo exhibition, Glasgow Print Studio Gallery III 1995 London - National Print Open, Mall Galleries Glasgow - The Colour of ashes, solo exhibition, Glasgow Print Studio Gallery I 1993 Ukraine - International exhibition of graphic art, Kharkiv Museum 1991 Moscow - Contemporary Scottish Printmaking, USSR Union of Artists Hall, New York and touring USA - International miniature prints (also in 89 and 85) 1990 Bradford and London - 11th International Print Biennale 1989 Nostalgia, solo exhibition, Glasgow Print Studio Gallery Edinburgh - Laughter and Forgetting, solo exhibition, Scottish Gallery, 1988 Berlin - Ka De We exhibition of Scottish Printmaking 1986 Los Angeles - International Contemporary Art Fair 1985 Cadaques 5th International Mini Prints, Barcelona.
ABOUT THE ART of PRINTMAKING
The development of artistic printmaking
Artists have always been quick to exploit the most recent innovations and inventions in commercial printing, but for their unique qualities. The term "printmaking" is now widely adopted to distinguish original prints from reproductions of existing works.
An original print can be defined as being conceived by the artist solely as a print, and executed in one or more print medium such as etching, mezzotint engraving or digital printmaking.
Whether the latest innovation of the time was, for example the discovery and development of lithography, the inventions of screen printing or engraving or the advances being made in digital printing, printmaking artists now continue to use the print media as a means of self-expression rather than for purely reproductive purposes.
on the making of etchings
Intaglio (pronounced roughly in-TAL-yo, from the Italian verb tagliare; to cut) is the family name given to a wide range of print techniques of which etching is probably to most well known. The making of etchings involves covering a metal plate, usually copper, steel or zinc, with a thin skin of acid resistant wax. When the design or drawing is scratched through the wax, it re-exposes the metal to the corrosive action of acid when placed in an acid bath. After etching, the wax is removed and the design can be seen etched into the surface of the plate. Ink rubbed into the plate will be wiped off the plate surface but will catch in the etched areas. When the inked plate, together with the dampened printing paper is passed under pressure between the rollers of the etching press, the ink in the etched design will transfer to the paper. Traditionally etching and engraving were line processes, so form and tone were created by cross hatching and stippling. With the development of aquatint around 1650, a fine layer of acid resistant resin dust is melted onto the plate surface. This allows the acid to etch a network of very fine lines between the resin particles, appearing as a solid tone. The longer that plate is immersed in the acid the deeper the lines or aquatint will etch. The deeper they are, the more ink they will hold and therefore the darker they will print. Etching has never lost any of its appeal and is still widely practised by contemporary artists world wide.
on digital printmaking
All my digital compositions are conceived solely as digital artworks and are not scanned reproductions of finished art works in another medium. As such they are "original prints" like my etchings and mezzotints, conceived and executed solely in print. I create them primarily in photoshop, incorporating a range of techniques from digital shape and image creation to layering collaging and blending with scanned and imported images. I tend to work digitally in a similar manner to making collages. They are printed on to acid free conservational printmaking paper with lightfast inks. They are not to be confused with so-called "giclee fine art" or "limited edition" prints which are reproductions of original artworks in another medium.
on mezzotint engravings
Mezzotints are also intaglio prints and are printed in the same way as etchings. The creation of a mezzotint plate is very different however. A copper plate is ideal as the plate is cut and manipulated by hand as opposed to the use of acid. Steel is too hard resulting in excessive wear on the tools and zinc is too soft resulting in rapid wear and breakdown of the plate. The technique involves producing a rough surface of burrs and pits on the surface of the plate which, if inked up would catch the ink and print jet black. This is achieved by rocking the serrated blade of the mezzotint rocker over the plate repeatedly in many different directions producing a uniform textured surface. It might look and feel like sandpaper. The image is then rendered on the plate in tones from the richest black, through a range of greys to the most brilliant polished white. To achieve this, the plate is scraped and burnished, reducing the height of the burrs and the depth of the pits and therefore the amount of ink held and subsequently printed. Scraping (rather than burnishing) naturally produces a more stable plate and this is why, historically, collectors refer to a quality mezzotint as "a good piece of scraping” and practitioners as mezzotint “scrapers”. Laying a mezzotint ground with a rocker is a very labour intensive process. It can take many days of preparation prior to scraping the image for even modest sized plates. This is perhaps why mezzotints tend to be dark and smaller in scale than in other contemporary printmaking media. Mezzotint was invented in the Netherlands in 1642 by Ludwig von Siegen. Apparently he noticed that something had scrapped and burnished the rough surface of his musket while serving in the army. Being familiar with the printing of etchings and engravings, he set about perfecting the technique of making continuous textured tones or mezzotints on copper plates. For years, many were baffled as to how these prints were made as he kept his invention a trade secret. However mezzotint was eventually to spread throughout Europe reaching its peak by the 18th century. With the invention of photography and photogravure from the 1830’s on, mezzotint as a reproductive medium suffered and eventually became obsolete. Fortunately, there were always artists who kept mezzotint alive as a means of artistic expression, and the last few decades seem to have witnessed a significant worldwide revival in the interest and practice of mezzotint among printmakers and curators.
Want to see how it's made? Watch a short 4 minute video here (no sound on this video)
PRINTMAKERS' WORKSHOPS
Printmakers' workshops exist in order that artist-printmakers may continue working in their chosen media.
Many workshops provide access to all the necessary facilities and in cases such as the Glasgow Print Studio and Jerusalem Print Workshop have become a focal point for the local, national and world wide community of artists and a vital resource of expertise for practice and education in the arts.
The three workshops below are among those which have a profound influence on my printmaking.
Why "Original" print? We hear so many terms applied to prints. Whether they are described as "limited edition prints", "fine art prints", "giclee prints" or "artists' prints" many are in fact reproductions of existing works of art such as an original painting or drawing. So what exactly is an "original print" and why is is so very different? Essentially an "original print" is an image conceived by the artist as a print (an etching or engraving, screenprint, lithograph, relief print, monoprint, digital print etc) and executed solely in one or more of these recognised printmaking techniques. It is not a scan or reproduction of an original picture in another medium. The printing matrix, whether an etching plate, lithographic stone, digital program or whatever is made afresh by the artist and from this matrix are printed individual prints. As they are signed and numbered, they comprise an edition of similar multiples. Each one is an original as no image exists until a print is taken. It is important to realise that no original drawing, painting, collage or whatever is reproduced to make an original print. Although still a print, that has to be called a reproduction.
Ravenesk Press
This is my home studio. As well as providing me with a painting and mixed media studio, it functions as an intaglio workshop, equipped with my 26"x 48" Rochat copperplate press. The washout sink with integral ferric chloride etching dip-tank (accommodating 50cm x 70cm plates), hotplate for traditional soft/hard grounds and a compressor with airbrush for acrylic aquatints are sited in a separate ventilated process room. The studio also houses my 27" iMac computer, the basis for my digital printmaking workstation.
Glasgow Print Studio
Glasgow Print Studio (GPS) has been my base since I graduated in 1982. Often when asked about being one of the "mainstays" at the GPS I quipped that by "showing my face too often I got given a set of keys and a job to do". It’s not so far from the truth such is the nature of being a regular at the GPS. There is a large and very open community of printmakers who have the time to mix and communicate with the many resident or visiting artists who use the studio. The GPS has links with printmaking workshops world wide and has run exchanges with studios in India, Japan, Russia, Germany, Denmark, Israel, Cuba, Canada and the US to name a few. As the GPS is one of the largest publishers of original prints in the U.K., and is also very active in both marketing and education there are many jobs needing done. With a membership ofl over 300 printmakers we have a large pool of expertise on which to call. Artist Richard Mock, writing for the International Print Collectors Newsletter in the 90's summed it up. He says that the GPS has gained an outstanding reputation for high quality, high impact graphics. What he saw when working with us proved this and wrote that he was also surprised to see that it was an open access studio with professional artists working next to beginning students. Everyone signs up for press time and awaits their turn. Finally he would "recommend the GPS to anyone who likes a more humanity-orientated printmaking experience". Decades on, all of this still rings true.
Jerusalem Print Workshop
Jerusalem Print Workshop (JPW) has to be sited in one of the most globally significant locales on the planet. Housed in a splendid detatched stone building on the corner of Shivtei Israel Street and Street of Prophets, the workshop sits on the three way split between Arab East Jerusalem/the Old City, with Mea Shearim, one of the most orthodox Jewish neighbourhoods to the north and the modern secular city of Israeli Jerusalem to the west. JPW was born of founder and now retired director Arik Kilemnik’s vision to have a facility in Israel where the very best of printmaking could be made by artists from all over the world. Although Arik and his team have achieved their goal many times over, it has done nothing to dampen their enthusiasm and commitment to the art of printmaking. The organisation utilises the entire building and comprises a ground floor gallery (an attractive series of interconnected vaulted rooms) with the printmaking workshop on the first floor. On the floor above the workshop is the upper gallery. It is particularly attractive, retaining much of the original open plan, upper floor ambience. It is also partially top lit which gives a soft diffused light to the space. The view from the long, panoramic southeast window is nothing short of spectacular. From here, one can look straight down Street of Prophets to Damascus Gate, the Old City and the golden Dome of the Rock beyond. The workshop below is a contrast to this in many ways. But although it contains the necessary equipment to facilitate an active and dynamic workshop, it too has retained something of the character of the building with stone arches and internal coloured glass windows all still in evidence. The facilities cater for etching, screen-printing, relief printing, book binding, photography and lithography. Artists working at the JPW workshop generally do so by invitation and collaborate with a resident master printer on specific projects. There is also provision for a small but dedicated community of etchers who pay a daily rate to access the facilities. It’s a fantastic place to work as everyone, artists or staff recognises the benefits of openness and the sharing of ideas and practices.