MAUD GIRONNAY

For 3 years I studied traditional and contemporary engraving techniques at the Ecole Supérieure Estienne (Paris).

After obtaining my diploma of the Métiers d'Art, I became the assistant of the engraver Marie-Christine Bourven, before setting up my own workshop in Reims in 2012 - thus allowing me to develop and approach other approaches to this medium. More than a simple technique, engraving is above all ritual, preparing step by step. It becomes alchemical, and each process of creation has this something singular, from the realization of the matrix in blind to the final discovery of the image which exceeds the label of a simple know-how.

Dreamlike images or captures of natural phenomena are at the center of my prints and translate a sensitive approach to the world.

My favorite technique: The black way or "Mezzotint", ideal to obtain velvety half-tones.

With the help of a tool called a cradle, the metal plate is engraved in order to create a tight and regular weft that will strongly hold the ink at the time of printing. The light tones and shades appear by lightly sanding the resulting grain.

A real craze animates the England of the XVIIIth century for this direct process invented in the previous century.


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