Stephen Lawlor

Early etchings were landscape concoctions of elements from a variety of old Master paintings. Printed from 4 spit-bitten, aquatinted plates and built up to combine multiple colours in layers in a painterly way. Utilising the density of layered aquatint in etching, depth and sensitivity of line and delicate subtlety of plate tone. After an encounter in 2004 perspective shifted to include portraits of powerful women from 1400 to 1800. Characters are taken from Tudor and Medici periods, from across the Royal Courts of Europe and the Floating World to reach back into the temporal haze and absorb their emotional presence. Scenes and characters explored inhabit a collective consciousness. In recent years images from cinema have been incorporated.