Printing on Fine Art Papers

I'm enjoying exploring the subtle differences among fine art papers prepared for Ultrachrome printing via an *.icc or *.icm profile. Here is the first set:

Museo, Museo II, Max 250, Portfolio Rag, Textured Rag, Silver Rag, Epson Premium Enhanced Matte, Velvet, Franklin Fine Art, Moab (Colorado Fiber Satine, Entrada Rag Natural 190), Moab Somerset En Velvet, Schoellershammer (Linen 225, Velvet 225).

Contemplative Spaces: Common Threads

What do the remote Tibetan-style monasteries in China, a creek in the Angeles National forest in California, a church in the Cotswolds in England have in common? They are all contemplative spaces. This show draws together such spaces across different print media, such as Palladium, Ultrachrome, and printing on fabric. It also draws together several display-threads.

Several palladium prints are being shown for the first time. This 130-year old process is demanding in the creation of a digital negative for the contact print and for the rigors of the palladium process itself.

The second involves making color prints using Epson's Ultrachrome pigments and Enhanced Matt paper. This is also a process which produces fine, archival prints. I've focused in this show on 16 x 20" prints matted and mounted in 20 x 24" frames. But I have also included several "banner scrolls" printed on fabric which have been shown at the Downtown Center in Pomona earlier in the decade. The technique of printing on fabric was pioneered by our local BMT studio and is an industrial technique which I adapted for art prints.

The third involves 3D prints using the "red/cyan" glasses (anaglyph) technique using a single camera by shooting a "right eye" and then a "left eye" view and adjusting the overlay of red and cyan images. Three of the 16 x 20" prints and two of the banner scrolls are 3D anaglyphs. 3D glasses will be available at the show.

A majority of the prints are based on photos I took in western China from Dunhuang along the early Silk Route and in Gansu and nearby provinces where Tibetan culture still flourishes, providing a variety of contemplative spaces.

Catalog for Packing House Claremont Show now Available

A catalog of the key pieces in the show is now available via Blurb. It's possible to preview a good part of the catalog before the show and buy a hardcover or softcover version in time to bring to the show. Better yet, it looks great on an iPad and only costs $4.99!

Contemplative Spaces Catalog by James C. Manley | Make Your Own Book

3D Images also Featured

I love the "surprise" of a 3D image at the point were the brain "sees" the effect. I've been making 3D images for years and have found an appreciation of the anaglyph technique (the Red/Blue -- actually Cyan glasses -- approach). A stereo camera is not needed (and was not used) for the images I took. The image to the left started out as two glass-plate negatives, however, taken before the turn of the century in Hawaii and prepared as an analygph. The quality of these large format photographs is amazing. One can but wonder at the skill of 19th century photographers working in these difficult conditions with large cameras and sensitive emulsions.!

Banner Scrolls to be a Part of the New Show

This is a street scene at a "watertown" south of Shanghai. It is printed on fabric with the dimensions 27.5" x 65", evoking an Oriental scroll. I'll be exhibiting several from this set in the upcoming show. Follow the link to others that may be included.

July 6th Venue Shared with Aerialists

You do see the prints there, just below the feet of the aerialist. It works. The show starts about 7 pm on First Friday. That's July 6th for my show.

New Show Beginning July 6th in Claremont, CA

Starting with Claremont's First Friday Art Walk July 6th, 2012 I'll have a new show up for a month in an excellent venue, in the Packing House in what was a part of the Claremont Museum of Art and also until recently the OBJCT Gallery.

The show's provisional title is Collector's Choice and consists of old and new work in both color and palladium. The prints will include ones which fall under the following themes: The Sense of the Distant Past. Color and Contemplation, Xinjiang Journey, and Tibet in China. The majority of prints will be 20" x "24" but will include some 40" panoramas, 3D anaglyphs, and selected banners printed on color fabric.

A catalog is planned both in hard copy and an eBook version for the iPad.

Prints will be for sale at surprisingly reasonable prices, both framed and unframed. The show will run from July 6th until shortly before the next First Friday which is scheduled for August 3, 2012. I'll be posting the gallery hours shortly along with more information. But in the meantime, save the late afternoon on this date in your calendars!