“Raven at Home” by Caren Catterall
Although modest in size at 12” x 9”, Caren Catterall’s intaglio print, Raven at Home, is filled with imaginative and captivating story-telling that gives it an alluring power which draws the viewer in close and makes the print seem larger than it is. Technically, the piece was etched on a copper plate and inked à la Poupée – an historic printing technique that involves applying multiple colors on the plate by hand, with small cloth pads, and running it only once through the press. Every print in the edition will undoubtedly have slight differences of tone from one to the other giving each a personalized “hand-made” quality.
Ms Catterall describes her content like this – “Raven sips his tea,”she says, “and looks out the window of his treehouse, enjoying the trinkets he has gathered.” Yes, that might suffice as a thumbnail sketch of what the viewer encounters. But what captivates are her immaculate drawing skills and masterful decisions handling color and composition. Raven commands attention because of the artist’s careful rendering of his feathery torso, with his right wing clasping his teacup and his left resting on the arm of his sinuous carved wooden chair – legs resting on a neatly rolled rug tucked beneath his feet. Beside him, Raven’s wooden teapot resides on a round wooden table – a small cut log mounted on four metal legs. The view out of his arched window of a serpentine tree limb is partially obscured by Raven’s collection of hanging ornaments. Behind him on the wall is a portrait – likely depicting friends or family. And on the floor nearby, his furry companion – a docile pet red fox – snoozes comfortably on a braided oval rug that echos the curves of the window.
Raven immediately captures our attention in this delightful piece thanks to his commanding size, to the dramatic darks and lights that draw our attention to his “face,” to Ms Catterall’s decision to render him in delicate shades of ultramarine blue, and wrap him in contrasting tones of pale and cool umber browns. “Reynard” is the exception. He is described in an equally light, but warm sienna tone that also draws attention to him asleep in the lower corner, and suggests his importance to Raven. What ultimately makes this piece amusing and relatable is, of course, its anthropomorphic character. The artist has given us an outsized imaginary bird with a human life style that makes him so relatable that we can join him at tea, wonder what his thoughts are in his comfy corner, and long to tenderly touch the sweet sleeping pet at his feet.