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The Production Of Garry Shead’s 2005 Releases

Basil Hall Editions
Basil Hall
October 2005

In 1988, Garry Shead worked with Sydney Master Printer Diana Davidson to produce a suite of 5 etchings known as the “Outback ballad” Suite. These sugar-lift and aquatint works were printed in one colour in small editions of 25. The zinc plates were then stored in Sydney until 2005, when Robyn Berkeley of Berkeley Editions suggested Garry make colour versions of the earlier etchings using the original plates.

To achieve this, Garry collaborated with Basil Hall, a Darwin-based printmaker. He spent two weeks at Basil’s studio early in 2005, preparing the first two etchings from the series. Robin also travelled to Darwin to view progress on the work.

The 1988 plates became the “key plates” in the new colour editions, while it was necessary for the artist to draw and etch three further plates to complete each image. With the assistance of Basil and his staff, Garry transferred the key outlines onto the new plates and painted around the areas which would hold ink on each of the red, yellow and blue plates. The plates were then aquatinted (which means they were dusted with rosin powder and etched in nitric acid to produce the tones of the three colours which you see in the final prints).

The inking and proofing process was also conducted during Garry’s visit, with numerous trial proofs being made to enable him to make adjustments to the drawing and experiment with colours. By the end of a fortnight, it was agreed that an RTP (“Ready to Print”) had been achieved for “Horse & Lady” and “The Horsebreaker”, and editioning commenced in the following month.

“Horse & Lady” and “The Horsebreaker” 2005 are colour versions of the 1988 editions and incorporate the original plates. Some paintings of similar subjects were made by Garry Shead during the 1980’s, but the etchings were drawn as separate works in their own right onto zinc plate and differ in a number of ways from the oils.

The editions of 55 are described as original multi-plate colour etchings by Garry Shead. The prints have each been produced from four plates drawn and etched by the artist in collaboration with Basil Hall. Garry and Robyn Berkeley plan to produce at least two more colour etchings from the series.