ESSAY PAINTERS IN PRINT

“TO DO A GOOD PRINT,” JOHN OLSEN declares, “you’ve really got to understand the medium and its possibilities. It’s no good just handing a drawing to a printmaker.”

It is a clear and definite statement, the kind one might expect from a painter who has brought the public towards his way of seeing things over a long and successful career. “But,” Olsen’s voice adds, as the conversation about painters’ prints continues, “the X factor is when working with a master printer. They can bring other possibilities.”

It is on this topic – master printers – that Olsen really takes off. “I have worked with a few. Max Miller, doing aquatint, would ask: ‘Are we going to use a coarse or a fine resin? The choice will transform the possibilities.’ That requires sensitivity to the medium and the memory of experience. So what really occurs