At last the etching has begun. It's at this early stage of the process that I find to be quite difficult. A copper plate covered in hard ground tends to be quite dark and a lot more difficult to see than a piece of silvery zinc. The Charbonnel ground that I use has a great smell which I am sure is harmful to my health (but of the very best quality).

After I work into the copper plate for a while I begin to understand where I need to take the image and what possibilities it may have. In earlier etching when draw a tree or a cloud on a plate, I have often made use of the lines in ancient drawings or engravings. William Blake is a favourite because he often uses similar lines to render a tree or a figure or a cloud. Many of the figures he uses in some of the Dante's Inferno engravings even resemble rocks or trees.

There are a number of reasons why I want to make reference or acknowlege another artists work through my own. The primary reason is one of a personal dialogue. By including in my own etching something I have found of importance in their work is a way for me to communicate with them historically. Its a way for me to reach back and shake their hand.

John Martin Mezzotint from "Paradise Lost"

Beginning a new etching

Its been quite a while now since I've begun a major etching. I find now as the years roll on that each new work takes longer to begin. I really don't want to add another mindless piece of art to the stockpile of images cluttering up visual space.

Before I begin to work on a landscape based image, I find it important that the idea or the place impresses itself strongly upon me so that I begin to think about it and the possibilities it offers as an image of visual strength historical reference .

I often ride my bike or walk the dog along a path by the Ross river in Townsville. In the course of the journey we pass through a group of old mango trees. By late afternoon as the sun begins to set, the trunks darken and the light traces along the edges of the trees standing a little away from the main group. I have often wanted to make an etching of the trees at this time of the day. They sometimes remind me of a work by John martin from his "Paradise Lost" series of Mezzotints. In the Martin Mezzotint of Adam and Eve being expelled form the garden, the couple flee through a cavern of dark trees illuminated from within. Adam looks toward heaven while covers herself in fear.

I've now taken several photographs of the trees. While I did this, the dog kept trying to drag me back onto the path for her regular walk. In preparation, I have grounded a copper plate with a Charbonnel hard ground, which has a great smell, but is probably very dangerous to my health. I use this brand of hard ground because of its resilience in acid.

I really do not know whether my personal attraction to these old mango trees and the fact that they hold some loose association with John Martin, are a strong enough reason for me to begin destroy such a large piece of copper plate.