Steel Canopy — Jenny Mason-GunningSteel Canopy is a striking black and white steel etching capturing the dense silhouette of trees seen from below. The image is bold and uncompromising — an interlocking canopy of branches pressed into darkness, where structure and atmosphere become one.Unlike photographic or bitmap-based photo-etching, this piece relies on pure contrast. The canopy is reduced to silhouette and space, creating a powerful graphic presence that feels immediate and dramatic.To achieve the rich depth of black, an aquatint was applied to the steel plate before etching. This allows the darkest areas to become velvety and absorbing, giving the print its weight and intensity. The aquatint holds the ink densely, producing a surface that feels almost nocturnal — a sky filled with branch and shadow.Printed under heavy pressure, the steel plate leaves a strong embossed plate mark in the paper, a tactile reminder of the physical process behind the image. The result is both delicate in its branching detail and forceful in its overall presence.Steel Canopy is a study of enclosure and stillness — a moment beneath the trees where light disappears and form becomes silhouette, held in deep black against open ground.
