Isles of the Morning 1925

"Isles of the Morning" by Percival Gaskell is an etching, so it's all about the line, about process and controlled accidents. Look at the surface texture. Notice how the etched lines hold the ink, creating delicate tonal variations. The waves are rendered with horizontal lines that capture their movement, but it's the sky I keep coming back to, that pale expanse rendered with the faintest touch of the plate, and above, those smudges of cloud, hovering. Gaskell must have spent ages working and reworking the plate, wiping it down, re-etching, building up the image bit by bit, until the whole scene coalesced into this quiet, meditative image. He reminds me of Whistler who was obsessed with similar effects, and with the idea of the print as something close to music, a harmony of tones and textures. I think he'd like that.