Anatomy of an etching: 'Prologue' by Elizabeth Frink

When Margaret C.  and I  visited   the Beaney House of  Art and Knowledge in Canterbury last week, among the paintings and prints  with a link to Canterbury  and Kent, we were both drawn to this etching  with aquatint by Elizabeth Frink of the  Prologue to Chaucer's  Canterbury Tales. It's one of a series of 19 etchings   published by Leslie Waddington in 1972.

What I liked about it:
- the composition and use of space
- the rhythm of the horses legs
- the balance of dark and light
- the variation in marks and texture
- the contrast between a small very detailed area and suggestions of shapes.
- 'less is more'  and the way the eye fills in  the gaps.

It reinforces what I learnt on my painting course , particularly about not have the same degree of detail across the whole surface.
Thinking of  what draws the eye, the  'centre of interest' an interesting letter this week  on the Painters Keys on the pattern of language.

15 Principles of Wholeness
“A Pattern Language” by Christopher Alexander