U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Bernie Boudreau's observations

Re: Bernie Boudreau's observations



Note spelling correction -- "Boudreau," above....

On Mon, 16 Mar 2009, Rajul wrote:

These appear on p 36 of Issue #6 of P-F. Whether this works on an Al surface is worth checking. Rajul

Thanks Rajul... I checked the article and found (blush, cringe, apologies) that, as I wrote in the article, I'd lost the original notes I'd made from conversations/ correspondence with Bernie, but I'd done a lot of work on my own based on his principles...

For instance, somewhere I'd read (& think not from Bernie) that a solution of "rotten" gesso made a great size, and it so happened I had half a gallon of old yucky home-mixed gesso, and used that for various sizings in my "RG" (rotten gesso) series.

Bernie's practice was exquisite and painstaking, well beyond my personal modus operandi, but here are a couple of the sizes I devised (based on his
modus operandi):

RG-4A: 1 part of my thickened "gesso," 3 parts 3% Knox gelatin, or 3-1/2 % either. I used a mix of carmine, veridian and thalo blue in equal parts gum arabic and am di, among others, for the first/main coat on this paper. I wrote that the best papers with this size included Merten Speisse, Magnani Pescia, Rives Bristol and Zerkal.

My RG-11, used 100 cc of 3-1/2% Knox gelatin plus 10 grams dexrine powder (no gesso). Brush on dry and harden in glyoxal.

Obviously, your water, your paper, your paints, your karma & your negatives will vary, but as an unredeemed process junky I enjoyed the process (and recently checking some favorite prints from that period, I see many have "RG" sizing -- so thanks to whoever raised the topic -- a
reminder).

J.