I'm excited to finally launch a new offering here on Earthlight. Artist's Proofs.
It's important to me to ensure my images are not limited as this goes against my mission of sharing the beauty and truth of our land and indeed works against my ethics of affordability and openness. To this end all of the creations available on the general Earthlight gallery will be open editions but made to order so no stock is ever wasted or held.
These items are crafted on my behalf by print partners who specialise in their particular products and are dispatched by them to your door by courier in a very timely manner. This allows me to be free to be out in the landscape, finding the stories and creating new things of beauty for you to enjoy - films, photos, tales and gifts for you to acquire.
I do however also enjoy hand making final creations from my photos and am now able to launch occasional Artist's Proofs of specific images. These differ in that they are crafted by me in my studio, signed and numbered by me and dispatched to your home by me. Due to the amount of time this takes I'm having to limit the numbers of these and make them available for a few days only so that I can focus on their creation in a boundaried manner.
Artist's Proofs.
Traditionally an Artist's Proof is a very limited run of a new piece of work that the artist releases prior to the art being made available to a general audience. It's a way for the artist to craft a small number of pieces in a more intimate, hands on manner so that they can enjoy a connection with the piece before the work is released to the world.
An Artist's Proof is recognisable due to it's being discreetly numbered in Roman Numerals by hand, and of course signed by the artist.
Earthlight Artist's Proofs.
At Earthlight I am doing my best to work on specific projects, enabling me to deep dive into a subject or topic rather than simply produce one off images. This allows me to build a connection that can be shared through the final body of work. The final set of creations may take weeks or months to manifest, some even longer.
However, as I work my way through a project, navigating the twists and turns of the tales presented to me I want to make a tiny number of my findings available as I go. This is where Artist's Proofs come in. Mother Willow is my first such piece. I was inspired by this tree and shared it widely with my community. The response and request for prints was such that I decided to release an initial piece of art of it before my Hutton Roof project is concluded.
I created an artistic rendition of this beautiful piece and made it available as 5 20" x 16" prints and 5 16" x 12" prints. These pieces have the name of the piece written in the border of the print along with my signature and the number. This makes them highly unique as no other pieces of this particular artwork will ever be created. The digital file will be destroyed once the images have been acquired.
The base image may of course be used in future Earthlight open editions and released as unsigned pieces as part of a body of works created by my selected print house but the integrity of the Artist's Proof will be maintained. This means that if you manage to acquire one you will own one of only a handful ever to be produced.
Bespoke Creations.
Every Earthlight creation is made to order by crafters. There is no stock held in some warehouse or cupboard! This will never change and they'll be publicly available in the various Earthlight galleries that I'm building. In contrast the bespoke Artist's Proofs will initially only be made available to Earthlight subscribers at a very special price. Once the offer period is over they'll be available in selected online or bricks and mortar galleries at full price. Nominally three times the price offered to Earthlight subscribers.
These bespoke creations will include prints, books, heirloom sets and more, all handmade by me and I'll send a quick email out to all of my Earthlight subscribers whenever an Artist's Proof is created. If you'd like to join my Earthlight clan simply click below and tell me where to send your email.