Re: Gum Pigments

About this list Date view Thread view Subject view Author view Attachment view

From: Richard Sullivan (richsul@earthlink.net)
Date: 07/25/03-12:07:21 PM Z


I should have been more specific.

Not only any brand, but colors that "don't work" thus leading to pigment
testing to see which ones do and how much to use etc. Not having printed
gum in about 25 years I follow these discussions with some amusement.
Stephen Livick is big on gum brands but I think much credit has to be given
to him for getting Stuart and the others going as they did get their start
when we had an on-line class taught by Stephen Livick on the B+S discussion
group a couple of years ago.

I found Stuart's blase attitude about pigments in "general" to run counter
to much popular opinion, however I never meant all opinion.

Yes, there are some holy grail gum printers about, even here on the List.
Stuart does not possess or pretend to posses the Grail. I have followed the
gum thing for several years now beginning with Livick and his classes
on-line and the enthusiasm his class generated. The fact that there has
been some hostility misdirected at Stuart is a bit of a puzzle. I do think
that for many an insecure worker in gum his work might be a bit
intimidating. I certainly found myself being intimidated by it. However
that is not Stuart's fault!

Stuart is one of the least egotistical alt worker I've met. Early on he
would drop over to B+S to show me his latest gum work. It quickly rose to a
an astounding level. Stuart has never proposed that his work was the be all
and end all of gum printing and several times stated exactly that during
his lecture at APIS.

Once I saw the level of work he was achieving I began championing his work.
For one he is still relatively unknown and to my knowledge does not have a
gallery yet. But more importantly he has taken up the cudgel and expended a
great deal of time and energy researching and experimenting with the gum
process. Stuart has worked over two years full time perfecting the gum
process. If I were to level any criticism of his images it is they have a
similar look to carbon prints. An aesthetic choice for sure. Ok, from my
knowledge of gum it is hard to get smooth detailed images and easy to get
gritty ones. If you can make images like Stuart's you can make images that
have the classical look, however the converse is not true.

The only thing I am sure about is gum printing will never be the same.

--Dick

At 08:54 AM 7/25/2003 +0000, you wrote:
>Richard Sullivan wrote:
> >
> > One thing that Stuart said that goes counter to much popular opinion is
> > that any brand of pigment works. I found that interesting.
> >
> > --Dick Sullivan
>
>
>In fact, the only person I know of who teaches that precious nonsense
>about brand being all-important is Stephen Livick.


About this list Date view Thread view Subject view Author view Attachment view

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : 08/07/03-03:34:50 PM Z CST