Featured Artist Jayne Reid Jackson

Printmaker Jayne Reid Jackson achieves amazing depth and detail in her mezzotint prints, using light, shadow and contrast. Visit her website to learn more.

 

 

I began my work in printmaking about mid-career, when I joined a print workshop to learn etching. Previous to that, I did not know anyone personally who made a living with their art. When I found intaglio and monotype, the print studio exposed me to working professional printmakers who shared freely of their technique and experience in the art world and who helped me to navigate the world of galleries and exhibitions.

 

 

I was encouraged to narrow my focus of subject matter. I chose still life as it suited my realistic, detailed style and was amenable to the manipulation of light and shadows to create an atmosphere of mystery and meaning.

 

 

I take advantage of the transformative effect that light has on glass, using the light, reflections and distortions that are created on the other elements in the still life and the space around them.

 

 

My still lifes blossomed when I discovered mezzotint, a process which I completely taught myself through books and the internet. Due to the detail I am able to achieve, my work has been compared to photography and I use my own photographs as reference simply as a tool to achieve the detail I am after.

 

 

My images usually begin as an idea based on a literary phrase or poem. I then build a still life to replicate that idea.

 

 

I stage the lighting and photograph my subject combining these multiple photographs into one drawing to emphasize the elements of the original idea.

 

 

Printmaking has made me a better draftsperson as everything is mirror image and reversed. I need to be sure of my image, backwards, forwards and in subject and composition, before I transfer it to the plate and begin the actual work of mezzotint burnishing and scraping.

 

 

Mezzotint is wonderful in that it really takes depth to the extreme with its deep blacks and subtle gradations.  Most of my work is black and white, which is traditional in mezzotint, but I have translated some of my plates into color by “dropping” it into different areas of the plate to create color editions.

 

 

The plate work can take several months, depending on its size, but I am rewarded with an image that can be used to make multiple editions. I print and curate my own editions in my home studio. It is important to note that mezzotints are printed in smaller editions than typical fine art prints due to the delicate nature of the plate. It will break down during the printing process due to the pressure of the press and the softness of the copper plate.

 

 

Specializing in still life mezzotints has brought invitations to exhibit both nationally and internationally, and I have become known for my signature rendering of glass and for my subtle symbolism.

 

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