Chine-collé is a printmaking technique in which a super-fine, thin paper is run through the printing press glued to a heavier support sheet. The process allows the print to be made on a very delicate surface, such as Japanese paper or linen, that pulls finer details off the plate, creates a subtle, delicate backdrop to […]
James Stroud is one of the great master printmakers working in America today. He studied printmaking in Paris with legendary printmaker Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17 and, later, with Gabor Peterdi at the Yale School of Art. In 1984 he founded Center Street Studio where, as director and master printer, he publishes print projects […]
Photogravure is an intaglio printmaking process in which a copper plate coated with a light-sensitive gelatin tissue is exposed to light which is shined through a film negative (just as is done when printing a photograph. The light degrades the gelatin tissue. The plate is then washed with acid. The acid etches the copper where […]
Float framing is a method of framing in which the entire sheet of the work remains visible. No mat covers the edges of the paper. Instead, the sheet is mounted to a matboard backboard, usually with paper or cloth hinges. Float framing is often used when the print is made on paper with deckled edges […]
Everyone’s heard of oil paints and acrylics—but what is “gouache”? Gouache (which is pronounced /gwash/) is a paint made by dissolving ground pigments in water and then thickened with a glue-like substance (usually gum arabic or yellow dextrin). It is applied like oils and acrylics but like watercolors it tends to be absorbed into the […]
Washington Color Gallery frames almost all of the art that we sell. You can be confident that anything we frame will be protected by conservation-grade glass or acrylic. Acrylic was invented in about 1928 by Otto Röhm and is manufactured by Röhm GmbH. It is marketed in the Americas under the brand name Acrylite and […]
We are serious about frames. Frames serve two key functions. First, most obviously, a picture’s frame distinguishes the art from the not-art and draws the viewer’s attention to the art and shapes how the viewer sees the art. The more important purpose of the frame is to protect the art. Just as walls get bumped […]
A collotype is a type of print in which a glass or metal plate is covered with a light-sensitive substance. The substance is exposed to an image on a negative, much like a photograph, which modifies the substance on the plate and, in turn, creates the image. The image would vary in hardness according to […]
Héliogravure is a form of intaglio printing. Like etchings and engravings, the print starts with a plate, and, like etchings and engravings, héliogravure plates are typically copper. Unlike etchings and engravings, the image on a héliogravure plate is not mechanically created. Instead, it is created with a photochemical process. To prepare the plate for the […]
Social realism is the term used for work produced by artist who aim to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structures behind these conditions. In particular, it refers to the interwar-period art movement that blossomed as a reaction to the terrible lives suffered […]
