Introducing Brian Holden

Brian Holden is an artist and print maker from Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. I met Brian at an arts fair in the '90's. Eventually I commissioned him to create an elegant business logo for me. He is a wonderful man. Since then I've purchased one of his prints (Moon & Forest III).

Brian has a brand new etching called The Shaded Lane hot off the press. This print hasn't been put on his website yet, but may be purchased by contacting Brian directly. I've asked him to share this work with us, so here is his description:

The Shaded Lane

This miniature etching was inspired by a hike I took in Southern Ontario in the summer of 2007. I was visiting family in Dufferin County and on a particularly hot sunny morning decided to escape out of the urban environment. I ended up at Mono Cliffs Provincial Park near the tiny hamlet of Mono Centre. This is one of my favourite spots to hike as it follows along a section of the Niagara Escarpment with many trails that lead to ponds, forests, open fields and observation platforms.

This scene portrays one of the hiking trails that leads down under a canopy of maple trees and arrives at a small pond at the bottom of a hill.

I exposed my artwork onto a solar plate and printed the small 2 x 2.75 inch plate in black oil based ink onto a 5 x 7 inch piece of 140 lb. cold pressed watercolour paper using my hand turned press.

The paper was gummed taped onto a board and I applied watercolour to it. The oil base ink resisted the water based pigments of the paint so there was no fear of bleeding or having the black mix with the watercolour.

Image size: 2 x 2.75 inches
Paper size: 5 x 7 inches
Open edition
Price: $30 (no mat or frame)