Favorite time of year

For me, the summer is always hectic and I end up having very little uninterrupted studio time, but as September approaches I feel a renewed sense of energy. I attribute this to decades of teaching and
the approach of the new school year always promised a fresh start and I'd feel a surge of excitement and anticipation. It's no different now that I'm retired; there's still that feeling of rejuvenation.

I had been working on numerous sketches and recently, while I was home in my studio, I felt compelled to start working on a new plate; even if its completion will be put on hold until after the Labor Day holiday. I just needed to get something going.

I have a few older Solarplates and decided to see if they were still viable. 

After playing around with exposure times, I ended up with 45 light units for my aquatint screen and 35 for the image. As you can see, even though the plate was wrapped in its original black plastic, the edges of the plate had been compromised and didn't expose as well as the center. I still think I can work with this.

I printed on Arnham cream paper with Akua carbon black; one sheet wet and the other dry. I much prefer the contrast on the dry.

This looks promising. Now to see where it takes me.