1980 "Ancient Wall" Stephen McMillan Aquatint Etching

Description

Artist: Stephen McMillan – American (1949- )
Title: Ancient Wall
Year: 1980
Medium: 3 plate aquatint etching
Sight size: 36 … more Artist: Stephen McMillan – American (1949- )
Title: Ancient Wall
Year: 1980
Medium: 3 plate aquatint etching
Sight size: 36 x 24”
Sheet size: 41.5 x 29.5 inches
Signature: Signed, dated lower right
Edition size: unknown. This one Printer’s Proof I/IV
Condition: Good
Unframed

This aquatint etching is by a master of the medium, Stephen McMillan (1949- ). It depicts Native American ruins in Chaco Culture National Historic Park, New Mexico. This ruin is part Pueblo Bonito, which was the largest building in this part of the Americas some thousand years ago. With about 800 rooms, this structure spreads out over a large area of the canyon floor. The print is titled in the lower left, numbered in the lower center and signed and dated in the lower right, all in pencil. The print is in good condition. There are some faint creases in the margins far from the image except for one faint crease that goes horizontally across the sheet – barely visible at the edge of the sheet and not at all visible in the image. There is also some light staining in the upper margin at the edge, far from the image. Please see the pictures. A copy of this print is in the collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Please note that this print is in demand and hard to find.

Stephen McMillan studied at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and for one year at Hornsey College of Art in London, England, where he concentrated on sculpture. It was at Santa Cruz, in 1969, that Steve was first introduced to etching. Since he received his BFA from UCSC in 1975, he has focused on creating aquatint etchings of landscapes, drawn freehand from photographs he takes. From 1975 to 1979 he worked at Graphic Arts Workshop in San Francisco. For most of the years from 1979 to 1992 he was an artist in residence at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, where he taught classes in printmaking, and wrote three technical articles about aquatint etching. In 1992 he moved to Petaluma, California, and set up a printmaking studio in his home. In 2006 he moved north to set up a new studio in Bellingham, Washington. Source: Artist’s website. less