Apricity [a-pri-ci-ty]
Dry Point Etching - Edition of 30
Plate Size : 150mm x 210mm (5.9” x 4.7”)
Paper Size : 210mm x 300mm (8” x 12”)
Paper : Velin D’Arches 400 gsm
Each etching is hand-printed from the copper plate, signed, titled, and numbered, accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.
-
This past month of etching has been particularly intense, and taking the time to reflect on this piece has helped me slow down and consider my motivations more clearly. This artwork draws from several sources of inspiration:
A word
Its meaning
A universal reaction
A woman I will never meet
The woman I married
The artwork is titled Apricity.
It’s a beautiful, old and relatively rare word that I discovered some years ago. I still remember the moment of realising there was a word for a feeling I had known and savoured in the past. There’s a quiet magic in naming a feeling, once it has a word, it becomes more tangible, something that can be held, recorded and shared.
Most importantly, a word like this allows us to communicate a complex, nuanced experience in an instant.
I’ve come to realise that this same impulse is what drives me to make artwork: the need to give form to difficult-to-describe emotions and experiences. A visual place for them to go. My way of giving thoughts and feelings a structure, one that I hope might resonate with others who recognise something of themselves in it.
-
There’s a metaphorical lens through which I tend to view the world, and apricity fits neatly within it. The word describes the warmth of the winter sun ; gentle, subtle, but made all the more powerful by the cold that surrounds it.
I think this contrast mirrors something deeply human. The harsher, colder seasons in our lives often create the conditions in which small moments of kindness, warmth and connection can be felt most strongly. Those moments can offer hope ,sometimes even a way forward, if we allow ourselves to notice them.
-
There’s also a physical, almost universal response to the experience described by apricity. Since learning the word, I’ve found myself noticing it more often.
When we encounter that warmth, we tend to lift our chin, close our eyes, pause, breathe, relax. It’s instinctive. A small but meaningful surrender.
-
Jenny Spurs [10th August 1990 - 13th January 2013]
Her name sits on a tarnished bronze plaque fixed to a tired old bench on the edge of the woods. I sit on this bench often, and every time I do, I read the words beneath her name.
‘ Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.’
It helps to read them aloud, to really consider their meaning. I imagine Jenny. I imagine how precious moments of peace must have been. It has a way of quietly bringing gratitude to the surface.
-
The scene in the artwork shows a figure emerging from the darkness of the woodland into the warmth of the sun. Set among the Scots pines of Leith Hill, a walk we take often as a family, it represents a moment of freedom, connection with nature, and with time itself.
It was on this walk, two months ago, that I watched my wife find complete calm and peace in a moment of apricity. I felt as though I was experiencing it fully, yet vicariously. Sleep deprivation and the chaos of a young family made that moment feel even more powerful.
It felt like the perfect setting to explore the literal and metaphorical meaning of this word, and the quiet strength it holds.
-
I hope this artwork reminds you of the warmth that can be found in the cold, the hope that can exist within despair, and how, if we give time to nature, it will be there for us.
Apricity [a-pri-ci-ty]
Dry Point Etching - Edition of 30
Plate Size : 150mm x 210mm (5.9” x 4.7”)
Paper Size : 210mm x 300mm (8” x 12”)
Paper : Velin D’Arches 400 gsm
Each etching is hand-printed from the copper plate, signed, titled, and numbered, accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.
-
This past month of etching has been particularly intense, and taking the time to reflect on this piece has helped me slow down and consider my motivations more clearly. This artwork draws from several sources of inspiration:
A word
Its meaning
A universal reaction
A woman I will never meet
The woman I married
The artwork is titled Apricity.
It’s a beautiful, old and relatively rare word that I discovered some years ago. I still remember the moment of realising there was a word for a feeling I had known and savoured in the past. There’s a quiet magic in naming a feeling, once it has a word, it becomes more tangible, something that can be held, recorded and shared.
Most importantly, a word like this allows us to communicate a complex, nuanced experience in an instant.
I’ve come to realise that this same impulse is what drives me to make artwork: the need to give form to difficult-to-describe emotions and experiences. A visual place for them to go. My way of giving thoughts and feelings a structure, one that I hope might resonate with others who recognise something of themselves in it.
-
There’s a metaphorical lens through which I tend to view the world, and apricity fits neatly within it. The word describes the warmth of the winter sun ; gentle, subtle, but made all the more powerful by the cold that surrounds it.
I think this contrast mirrors something deeply human. The harsher, colder seasons in our lives often create the conditions in which small moments of kindness, warmth and connection can be felt most strongly. Those moments can offer hope ,sometimes even a way forward, if we allow ourselves to notice them.
-
There’s also a physical, almost universal response to the experience described by apricity. Since learning the word, I’ve found myself noticing it more often.
When we encounter that warmth, we tend to lift our chin, close our eyes, pause, breathe, relax. It’s instinctive. A small but meaningful surrender.
-
Jenny Spurs [10th August 1990 - 13th January 2013]
Her name sits on a tarnished bronze plaque fixed to a tired old bench on the edge of the woods. I sit on this bench often, and every time I do, I read the words beneath her name.
‘ Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.’
It helps to read them aloud, to really consider their meaning. I imagine Jenny. I imagine how precious moments of peace must have been. It has a way of quietly bringing gratitude to the surface.
-
The scene in the artwork shows a figure emerging from the darkness of the woodland into the warmth of the sun. Set among the Scots pines of Leith Hill, a walk we take often as a family, it represents a moment of freedom, connection with nature, and with time itself.
It was on this walk, two months ago, that I watched my wife find complete calm and peace in a moment of apricity. I felt as though I was experiencing it fully, yet vicariously. Sleep deprivation and the chaos of a young family made that moment feel even more powerful.
It felt like the perfect setting to explore the literal and metaphorical meaning of this word, and the quiet strength it holds.
-
I hope this artwork reminds you of the warmth that can be found in the cold, the hope that can exist within despair, and how, if we give time to nature, it will be there for us.
