Back in June, UK-based artist and printmaker, Chris Long, was awarded 1st prize in the experimental printmaking category at the 11th International Miniprint of Kazanlak open.
The winning print was Vista III, a carbarundum/drypoint. Vista, in this context, refers to a less common usage of the word, a glimpsed view between obstructions. The title refers not to sweeping landscape, but to a less common use of the word meaning to glimpse a view between things. “It is as close as I have to come to referring specifically to landscape, and this ‘in between’ abstraction and natural form is something I have been exploring,” says the printmaker.
In total, three of Chris’ prints were accepted into the 11th International Miniprint of Kazanlak in Bulgaria. He states; “I was completely taken by surprise when a few days later I received an update saying I had been awarded First Prize in the Contemporary Printmaking category. The exhibition runs two prizes, Classical and Contemporary printmaking, so to have been awarded one out of over 450 exhibited works was very humbling.”
Chris was then invited to submit another 12 prints for his solo exhibition as part of the winning entry. He had a few starts on different series of prints that he was able to build on. He then submitted another two in the Vista series, and created another three series. Strata, refers to the abstract notion of layering, as well as possible geographical processes. The second, Threads, refers to the use of line, and finally, Nocturne, which simply places a poetic reference to abstract compositions with a particular colour process.
He had initially started to plan for the miniprint opens, of which there are not many, in the middle of last year, with the aim of entering the International Miniprint of Cadaques. Chris tells us; “I have found the format to be completely transformational in how I approach not just the development of smaller format prints, but in the experimentation of technique. What has been particularly interesting is that once you commit to the format, the best results are from ideas that are bound up with the dimensions. I have found that upscaling these ideas isn’t always successful. The prints work because they are small.”
www.chrislongprints.com
@chrislong_prints
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