French artist breaks the mould with hybrid technique

French sculptor-artist Thomas Godin practices a distinctive form of intaglio that combines painting, engraving, alchemy, and traditional printing.

French sculptor-artist Thomas Godin practises a distinctive form of intaglio that hybridises painting, engraving, principles of alchemy and traditional printing.

The artist, who hails from the Brittany on the north-western frontier of France, was recently in the city on a special invitation to share his hybrid technique with a group of artists and art lovers at a session hosted on the lawns of Kariappa House recently.

As someone who works with large dimensions at his studio-gallery in Landerneau, minimising the medium of his art to a small zinc plate for a live demonstration of the artistic process was also relatively new territory for the artist. His open studio back home offers a time-trip to a medieval alchemists’ laboratory, where a still mind and steady hand help transition engravings, from copper sulphate wash to pressed paper image.

“This is like being able to take my work studio along wherever I go”, said Mr. Godin as he arranged the tools of his craft on a table — a metal plate, varnish, sheet of absorbent paper, a tray of copper sulphate and dyes. A game changer, he said with a smile, is this improvised roller pin — a shower-head lookalike that was added to the kit recently—that he uses to press-transfer the engraved image on to a sheet of paper.

“There’s no greater joy than sharing the art and its process with others”, he said.

The engraved zinc plate virtually serves as a mould to offload a number of copies as in a conventional printing press. However, he advises art adventurers to not overdo the number of impressions in the interests of preserving the integrity of the art.

The Celtic roots of his birthplace, the Breton language unique to the place, its breathtakingly beautiful hills and rich culture, strongly influence most of his works, including his reimagining of painted-engraved landscapes or the “MoonGaze” series or his large-format sculptures in Europe. His love for Brittany, which comes across in the Breton language titles of his works, is also the theme of a film “La Lumière por Horizon” (Light On The Horizon) by Romain Arazm, French historian-author and producer-director.