Etchings and silk exhibition at A la Ronde

Sheila Stone and her daughter Charlotte Stone will be presenting a series of etchings and art work on silk at A la Ronde near Exmouth from 5 to 18 June, 10.30am - 5.00pm. 

Sheila moved to Lympstone in 2008 after a lifetime in Primary Education in Inner London. Now she both paints, favouring charcoal and gouache, and etches. In each she uses a restricted palette, being interested in tonal values.  She is also a keen photographer and this influences her work.

Sheila is also attracted by the discipline and exacting nature of etching. Using the same techniques as the English portrait and landscape painter Gainsborough, she draws into hard or soft ground wax on zinc plates, which are etched by nitric acid.

The process is repeated many times to get the dark or light shaded lines and painterly qualities are obtained by sugar lift aquatint, where powdered resin is burned on to the zinc plates.  As with other types of print making, the images have to be reversed - a mirror image of the final product.

Most of Sheila’s work is printed on Somerset paper in limited editions of ten using an enormous hand press. 

Charlotte will be exhibiting one original ink drawing and painting, and limited edition hand screen prints.  She always begins with an ink drawing.  Charlotte studied at the London College of Fashion and then did a course on Surface Design at the London college of Printing (now The University of the Arts).  She lives mainly in Stockholm, but also spends time in Devon. 

This is Sheila and Charlotte’s third joint exhibition.  It can be seen, free of charge, in A la Ronde’s stable and award winning tearooms.