Observations placeholder
Gibbings, Robert - 'Thoughts on Wood' in The Saturday Book
Identifier
013225
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
the fenian and the orangeman
Gibbings was gripped by the possibilities of wood engravings, by the possibilities of expression within the very formal constraints of the medium:
A description of the experience
Robert Gibbings, 'Thoughts on Wood' in The Saturday Book
But slowly a love of the wood came upon me.
I began to enjoy the crisp purr of the graver as it furrowed the polished surface.
I began to appreciate the cleanness of the white line that it incised: even the simplest silhouettes had an austere quality, a dignity, that could not be achieved by other means.
Clear, precise statement, that was what it amounted to.
Near enough wouldn't do: it had to be just right.