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Patrick Morley
Patrick Morley
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Patrick Morley
'Drunk on me' by Guy Denning (Red Propeller Gallery)
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Patrick Morley
'John Dory' by Catherine Forshall
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Patrick Morley
'May Morning' by John Donaldson
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Patrick Morley
Patrick Morley
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Patrick Morley
'Poppies' by Yvonne Coomber
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Patrick Morley
'Strand' by Sarah Gillespie
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Patrick Morley
'Sweet Talk' by Louise Dear
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Patrick Morley
Some residents and visitors to South Hams are fortunate to own an original painting from one of our many local artists, e.g. Simon Hart, Martin Procter, Simon Drew, Andras Kaldor etc, probably bought from a gallery in Dartmouth, Kingsbridge, Modbury or Totnes.
As we know, some of those artists are able to claim high prices for their paintings such is the quality and renown of their work. Although sometimes out of reach for many of us, their work can still be enjoyed and treasured by purchasing a limited edition print instead. Many of the local galleries offer a restricted supply of such prints as do the many artists who perhaps sell their work directly rather than through a gallery.
Those readers who have purchased such a print locally will probably be the owners of a piece of work that is the result of the diligent and expert labours of a highly regarded local printer called Patrick Morley.
Patrick runs ‘glasshouseart’ (833146). Limited edition prints have for long been the preserve of large publishing houses but thanks to inkjet and giclee (the process of making fine art prints from a digital source using ink-jet printing) it is now accessible to every artist and gallery that wishes to publish.
Patrick is a ‘one-man’ band who lives in Dittisham and works from a small workspace in Dartmouth – “once a damp hole in Dartmouth” as he describes it. Here with the aid of sophisticated computer, camera and print technology, he turns out reproductions that are of the highest quality with almost as much depth and colour as the original work.
Printed on rag paper (a fine art paper with a coating on top), the process of creating these prints is not the result of a quick scan and pressing a button on a printer, but the result of careful colour and image manipulation, some of it by trial and error, to reproduce as closely as possible what the artist was attempting to say through the original piece.
This screen-printing expertise is the culmination of 25 years in the business working in London for fine art printers and the last 5 years working by himself in Dartmouth. Like many South Hams residents, he escaped here in 1990 from London with his family for a better quality of life. He spent some time weekly commuting to London and then for eighteen months helped with the restoration of a classic yacht owned by local architect Roderick James.
“I’m not a shipwright but I held the bits that other skilled people worked upon. I wasn’t as fit as I should have been for such physical work but I loved it. Roderick said he wasn’t surprised I stayed for eighteen months but that I lasted the first two weeks!”
Having decided to work for himself and finding the premises in Dartmouth, Patrick then slowly but steadily built himself a list of clients entirely by word of mouth. The first client was local Dartmouth artist, Simon Hart and many of the leading local artists in South Hams and Devon have since followed.
“Like a lot of traditional printmakers, I decided to go electronic and undertook some intense training on some specialist equipment which I then bought.” Patrick uses a series of computers to both run the complex printing machinery and to facilitate the colour manipulation and control which he does through Photoshop software. There’s also a computer to manage the highly sophisticated camera, which takes the original digital image.
This camera boasts the equivalent of 120 megapixels (most consumer digital cameras enjoy just 6-10 megapixels), and is the type often used by museums for archival photography of documents and pictures.
The process of taking the original image is a lengthy one as the artwork has to be carefully lit, often in different ways if the artwork is complex, to ensure that the digital image picks up the correct nuances of the paint, shades and textures. “I can go through many combinations to get it right,” Patrick says, “but my experience of once working as a photographer’s assistant to finance myself through college has been a great help.”
“I try to interpret what the artist has done by getting inside their head but I like also to get the artist into the studio here and work with me so I can be sure of what he/she is trying to do with the picture. Once I have got a print signed off, it is then archived digitally ready for print. We’ll either run a series of prints off straight away or draw them down one by one depending on demand. Each subsequent print is then identical.”
The traditional skills of printmaking have perhaps been largely superseded by the developments in digital computer technology. But as Patrick comments, “I like to think I have brought skills from the former into the process. I am not a techie, instead I come from the paint-brush end. Understanding both ends does, however, give me an edge.
I am essentially a colourist, but now paint and brushes have been replaced by a computer screen. I can look at a painting and understand how it’s done and then translate that into the digital image and print process.
This is a job for a perfectionist – I am very fussy about what goes out of here. The secret is to keep on improving a piece by perhaps very small increments, and I often find it’s the last extra bit of effort that can make a piece really sparkle”
Interestingly, Patrick charges a basic material and setting up cost for each commission as a “loss leader” and then charges by the print. “If I didn’t do that and just charged for my time, I would often be too expensive especially if I am working directly for an artist.
This way both the artist and I invest time into the print edition and hopefully we both make some money when they sell. I am just fortunate that we have so many talented artists and active galleries in Devon, indeed in South Hams.”
This is a full time job for Patrick but he admits he’ll never make a fortune but he clearly loves what he is doing and doesn’t see himself stopping any time soon. “It’s a perfect retirement job but just 10 years too early!”
He works by himself; “it’s the type of job where you have to like your own head. I have always been happy in my own space but being in the town means I can get out and meet with friends and contacts during the working day.”
Patrick still enjoys the Devon lifestyle with a boat on the Dart, which he gets to use although as he says “owning a boat is great but you seem to use it a lot lying in bed not on the water”.
01803 833146
07971 563990
First published February 2009 By the Dart