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SONIA ROLLO
Etchings and Prints 2018
PLEASE NOTE PRICE INCREASE FOR THE FOLLOWING SIZE PRINTS
SMALL: £175
      MEDIUM: £220     Â
LARGE: £275
Unframed Prints can be ordered by phone or post and delivered throughout the UK and Abroad.
Sonia Rollo was
educated at Glasgow University, graduating with a B.Sc in agricultural botany.
She worked in scientific publishing as editor of Chemoreception Abstracts.
Sonia Rollo studied printmaking at Morley College, London. She is a founder member
of Half Moon Printmakers, a member of the cooperative Southbank Printmakers and
a past vice chair of the Printmaker's Council.
Sonia's interest in
animals started in childhood with a pig called Hilary, two geese called Charlie
and Cassandra, and a mongrel, Pearl.
Training as a
biologist meant observing plants and animals, drawing them to aid
understanding. But now she can have fun with her drawings and making them into
etchings.
Sonia Rollo has exhibited throughout the UK since 1993 and her work is often
selected for the London Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. This is how the Modern Artists Gallery discovered Sonia's wonderful work over 15 years ago.
Technique
Sonia Rollo creates her animal etchings by first drawing the outline of the
animal. Using a zinc metal plate covered with a fine dusting of rosin, which
has been melted on. Areas, which are to remain white, are painted
over with varnish. The plate is immersed in a bath of nitric acid to bite
between the blobs of rosin. This makes the aquatint. The plate is
then cleaned. Afterwhich the plate is covered with a layer of soft wax, drawing
into the wax using a needle, a wire brush or often a pan scrub, to give the
texture of fur or feather. The plate goes back into the nitric acid to
bite the lines.
Each print is made by covering the plate with ink, then wiping off the surplus
ink with muslin. The inked plate is put on a hand-operated press and
covered with damp paper. The print arrives cold and wet off the press.