Smoke by Jennifer Page, 7.25 x 9.5 inches, photogravure on 100gsm gampi paper. Page uses the Talbot-Klic process of photogravure in which
the image is etched through a photo-sensitive gelatin resist on copper.
depressions into the stone, which attract the oil-based ink. Litho can
imitate almost any drawing material and was widely used for printing
money, maps, and other official documents in addition to fine art.
Relief printing is similar to stamping. In relief processes (wood-cut
intended to be white, and ink is applied to the raised sections of the
block. Relief prints make use of large solid areas of black and white
and have strong graphic impact.
Local printmakers often create large-scale woodcut prints using a
steamroller for a printing press (at UNCW, late May, odd-numbered
years), and the Cameron Art Museum recently acquired a collection
of modern American prints of all kinds.
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IN ETCHING, the plate is coated with a waxy acid-resistant
ground. Lines are scratched through the ground with an
etching needle. The plate then is exposed to the chemical that
eats away at the exposed sections, creating recessed areas for the
ink. Aquatint is a chemical process that utilizes acid-resistant
coatings and multiple etches to create a variety of increasingly
darker tones.
All the intaglio processes require the use of a printing press that
pushes dampened printing paper into the incised lines to transfer the
ink from the plate.
Lithography is traditionally done on limestone. An image is drawn
onto the stone using grease-based materials that eat microscopic
and linoleum cut) the artist carves away the areas of the design
Benjamin Billingsley is a painter and printmaker living in Wilmington, North Carolina. He holds an MFA from UNC Greensboro,
and has exhibited work in the Southeastern United States as well as in Estonia, Russia, Japan and at the Pedvale Open Air Art Museum
in Sabile, Latvia. He has taught studio art and art history at Cape Fear Community College since 2001. In 2006 Billingsley received
the Marilyn Goodman Anderson Endowed Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is also a frequent guest lecturer for the Cameron Art
Museum’s docent program and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNCW. In addition, Billingsley attended the No Boundaries
International Art Colony on Bald Head Island (2016), and was a visiting artist at ECU (2019).
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