Cleo Wilkinson

Cleo Wilkinson

Then IV 2020
mezzotint; edition 15/40
Courtesy of the artist

Artist statement:

I try to emphasise the singularity and silence of a form: what is missing in the shadows provides the greatest potential for me. I love nursing an image into life, in the form of light out of its pitch-black womb. The process has a primordial spiritual magic. The mezzotint technique and tools have remained relatively unchanged for 300 years. The small teeth of a metal tool called a rocker create tiny burrs that hold ink during the printing process. Working from dark to light the rocked areas will produce a rich black, with the image emerging from areas that have been burnished back so as not to hold ink and create lighter tones. The mezzotint process produces an image with a high level of tonal richness.