Four Triptychs Twelve Prints

Net Lace:  A Companion Edition

I often use the triptych form in my paintings and prints.  I follow this traditional form I first saw in the cathedrals and art museums in Europe. Powerful and exquisite devotional triptych paintings and sculptures.

The triptych format has beem used by artists since early Christian times in altar paintings and sculptures.  The form is also echoed in magnificent stained glass windows.  It’s the symbolic manifestation of the Holy Trinity.

Outside that context the triptych has long been used by many prominent contemporary artists.

One of my favorites is by the celebrated  British painter, Francis Bacon, titled Three Studies of Lucian Freud.  He painted the triptych, below, in 1969.  It sold at auction in 2012 for $142.4 million.

I’m most interested in the triptych form as a way of developing a theme.  It’s an opportunity to play around with form, structure, and perspective.

The trilogy is an intuitive way to work.  And I think many artist would agree with me, including writers.

Here’s my recent edition of mono print triptychs titled Net Lace.

Carborundum. etching, mono print, and chine colle.

Net Lace is in part maritime themed.

Shipyard cranes appear in some of the prints. I used fish net material for the mono print.

Metaphorical threads that connect craft based work, like lace making, with the pragmatic necessities of net mending, were on my mind.

These triptych prints are a small companion edition to the larger Net Lace edition project that I continue to develop.

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