Painters As Printmakers (19 October 2007 - 20 January 2008

Throughout the 1970s, Jeffery Harris successfully called on his technical skill and abilities in drawing highly detailed, complex images which emphasised line rather than tone to produce an outstanding body of etchings. Here, Harris readily replaced the sharpened pencil lead with the keenly honed etching needle to achieve similar finely detailed lines. Works such as My Dream of the North Island highlight Harris’ interest in psychological, dreamlike subject matter.

Harris is largely self-taught as an artist, and although better known for his paintings he is also a highly regarded printmaker. Harris first worked with etchings in 1971, when he briefly studied under the printmaker Walden Tucker at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art . Since then he has printed many of his own etchings and also worked in collaboration with printmaker John Loane at the Viridian Press in Melbourne.