INTRODUCTION PLACES FIGURES ECLIPSE SERIES ATLANTIS SERIES COLLAGE SQUARES RELIEF PRINTS TECHNIQUES EXHIBITIONS BEHIND THE IMAGES GREEN PRINTS version Français

Cedric Green was born in Africa, and trained in a school of architecture where it was still considered an art, closely linked to sculpture and painting. During a period of 30 years he produced buildings and exhibited drawings, designs, sculpture and paintings, and also taught at the Cheltenham School of Art, and Sheffield University in England. Then in the 80's he became fascinated by printmaking, and acquired the basic technical skills, moved to France, restored an old farmhouse in the hamlet of Bêlèterie for home and studio and began working full-time in 1991, painting and making experimental prints. Over a period of years he has carried out research into safer methods of making prints and eliminating the toxic acids and solvents traditionally used. He has revived some 19th century electrolytic methods for etching and making plates which he has called Galv-Etch, and discovered a new electrochemical mordant to use with zinc plates, called Bordeaux Etch. He has documented this research in articles, a booklet entitled "Green Prints" and in a website containing most of the content of the booklet. The examples of prints shown here mark recent stages in the development of an individual technique which uses a wide range of methods - copper and zinc plates printed in intaglio and relief, monotypes, sometimes combined in the same print. His methods mix spontaneity of creation and execution, precision, controlled accident, and a search for ways of expressing ideas which have been a preoccupation for many years. A recurring theme is Atlantis, Plato's mythical utopia destroyed by flood as a punishment for their arrogance - a relevant myth for our time. Many of his pictures are based on the abiguity, distortions and complexity of reflections in water or in the imperfect mirror of memory. Musical ideas are important to him and appear in the frequent use of variations on a theme. He has exhibited designs and photographs of his buildings in Brussels, London, Tokyo, and Cannes: sculpures in Zimbabwe, England and France; paintings and prints in Britain and Périgueux.