Country Matters - Clare Leighton

Leighton's illustration was my final task in this brief. Initially, I believed that this would be the easiest of the replications, however, I was mistaken. As this copy was made using scraper board, and etching tools, both materials I had not touched previously, it was much harder, and took much longer than I had anticipated. I would definitely say that I had the most trouble with this forge, in comparison to the pencil and dip pen drawings.
     To create this piece, I began by inking some large areas of my sketch book and cartridge paper. This was intended to be used to practice with the scraping tools before attempting any work on the scraper board. However, I found rather quickly, when testing against a small section of the scraper board, that this was not a very effective method. The inked paper and the scraper board worked completely differently with the tools - the inked paper was rough, and easily tore, whereas the scraper board allowed the tools to glide in any direction, removing the black layer with ease. Therefore, I decided that my time would be more effectively used practising lines and techniques on the scraper board. To do this, in a similar manner to the dip pen and ink replica, I selected specific areas of the original piece and repeated the lines until I was confident in the appearance and movement, and felt that it effectively mimicked Leighton's work. I then used carbon paper to print the outlines and and any guidance for the shadows onto the scraper board, and then began the final forgery. To start, I carved the smaller, thinner lines, and then afterwards, I created the larger blocks of white to finish.
     Overall, I feel that this piece was my least successful of all of the tasks in the brief. I had quite a lot of trouble using the tools, and making them work effectively. I believe that this struggle is also evident in the final product. If I were to be given the opportunity to replicate 'Country Matters' again, I would spend much more time studying the artwork, and practising the linework before actually attempting my final copy.

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A Glance at Clare Leighton

Clare Leighton was born in  1898, as the daughter of the two authors Robert and Marie Connor Leighton. She was encouraged by both her parents and her illustrator uncle, Jack Leighton, to pursue painting, so began formal studies at the Brighton College of Art in 1915. She then later went on to study at the Slade School of Fine Art, and the Central School of Arts and Crafts. This was when she was first introduced to wood engravings under her lecturer, Noel Rooke.
​       Between the 1920s and 1930s, Leighton visited the US numerous times before emigrating in 1945, becoming a naturalised citizen. Over her career, she illustrated and wrote many books, largely focused on the countryside, and people who worked the land. However, as the world around her became more industrialised, she began working more on artwork based on rural men and women. Then, in the 1950s she was also commissioned to create designs for Steuben Glass, and stained glass windows for churches in New England and Massachusetts.    
​    Her most notable work includes: ‘The Farmer’s Year’, a calendar of English Husbandry’ (1993); ‘Tempestuous Petticoat: The Story of an Invincible Edwardian’ (1948), a novel based on her childhood, and ‘Southern Harvest’ (1942).