Making do with being born in the wrong century...
"Etching? What is that? Are those pen and ink drawings?"
These are questions that have been asked of me over the years by strangers that have taken a casual interest in my artwork. I explain to them what an etching is and the technical process involved in creating an etching. I also mention that etchings, along with woodcuts and stone lithographs was a way for artists of the past to reproduce their work, so as to be collected by the public before photography, offset lithography, computers, photoshop and inkjet printing was invented. Yet, I have noticed with each passing year when I mention the word "etching" in conversation, I find myself on the receiving end of many confused and blank stares from people..
My name is Parks Beach and I am a printmaker. I am familiar with many different types of printmaking: Intaglio to silkscreen, woodcut and stone lithography. Because of the type of line that I create with my hand, I eventually gravitated towards copperplate etching. I have studied at the Boston Museum School, Boston, Massachusetts, Academia di Belle Arti di Roma, Italia, and The Art Students League of New York City, of which I’m a member. I learned printmaking from the late Kalman Kubinyi of Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
I have been known for doing nautical and topographical etchings of which some of you may be familiar with, most likely having seen them in galleries and frame shops throughout New England or on my website www.parksbeach.com. I would like to make use of my Etsy shop to show some of the etchings and artwork that may not be found in these galleries and frame shops. So I think this is why having an Etsy shop online is quite wonderful and unique. I would like to mention that over the last thirty-five years my artwork has been collected by people from all walks of life allowing me to support myself from it and I am very grateful for this.
Thank you for visiting my Etsy shop and hopefully you might see something you might enjoy having...making me realize that maybe I'm in the right century after all.
