“Coliseum” 1980

“Canyon floor” 1973

John Ross was a printmaker known for his collagraph prints such as above, which was printed using the intaglio method with dampened paper to bring out the image in the crevices and different tones. Ross was a prolific printmaker popularising and developing collagraph printmaking successfully for his career, even publishing books to guide and teach outside of his job teaching printmaking which he held for fifty years. The above print is an example of one of his intaglio works, the process and collaged nature give the print its blocked tones as different materials were used when creating the plate as they hold different amounts of ink creating the different tones. While Ross uses the collages materials for tone I also like the linear tone for the Grand Canyon rocks, he was heavily influenced by trips he took with his family. I really like his use of line and pattern in this print as my images are similar and have tile pattern as well, the prints communicate well and are very comprehensive. The different colours adds to the dimension of the piece adding more layers with the tone created by the materials. In my own work I will definitely be using these kind of sharp lines and patterns to create tone and make the image clear.