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ABOUT THE ARTIST AND HIS METHODS
Walter G. Bublé, a native New Yorker, has been painting portraits, cityscapes, and landscapes since 1982. He studied in New York City and has been represented by galleries in 8 states including New York, New Jersey, and Vermont. His paintings and prints are in homes across the world - from the Americas to Europe and Asia.
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Walter is a volunteer Firefighter with the Danby Volunteer Fire Company where he is a NYS certified interior firefighter. Walter has served as the Assistant Rescue Director, Recruitment Director, and Assistant Chief. Before volunteering with Danby, Walter volunteered with Cayuga Heights Fire Dept. where he was an apparatus chauffeur and a “Diehard Member” of the department - responding to more than 30% of all calls, and nearly 75% of fire calls. Walter has been drawing and painting firefighting related art since he was old enough to hold a crayon, and his firefighting print series reflects a long-held interest in the subject. See childhood Firefighting drawings. As his wife well knows, no vacation is complete without visits to local fire stations to talk, examine the apparatus, and get photographs.
Right, the artist sitting on CHFD's old Ladder 231.
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Like many people, he developed a life-long interest in the Civil War after his parents brought him to see Gettysburg in 1970. In 1999, Walter decided to paint Civil War battle scenes and he began the process of researching the many details that are necessary to accurately portray his subjects. Two years later, the first painting was completed: Above Rohrbach Bridge, otherwise known as “Burnside’s Bridge.” PAINTING METHODS Walter’s paintings take a long time to paint. After deciding on a subject, he first makes several drawings on paper in order to work out the composition and certain details before painting starts. A canvas sheet is stretched on wooden stretchers and painted with acrylic primer. After the primer, a semi-transparent wash - thinned paint - is applied first. In the case of firefighting paintings, the artist makes detailed drawings on the canvas. Then, a basic under-painting is blocked in with paint, using real-life models and objects as well as sketches and photos. The final shapes and colors are slowly built up and finely detailed with many layers of paint. The process of building up the image entails taking the painting out of the studio and bringing it to the scene to fully capture the light and the finest details, like the holes in the Federal Sign and Signal Corporation siren known as the “Q”. (See photo above, just to the left of the artist.) DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND PROOFING Walter’s original oil painting is photographed by a high-resolution digital camera that transfers the image directly to a computer file. This camera is capable of capturing the smallest details, including tiny dots that are coat buttons on a soldier far in the background of a scene. A print, called a “proof,” is made from the computer image and reviewed by the artist for his comments on the color and other details. Based on these comments, the printer carefully adjusts the image and prints out another proof for Walter to comment on. This process continues until Walter is satisfied that the printed image is as close to the original painting as is possible. GICLÉE CANVAS PRINTING Giclée prints are made by a large, computer controlled ink-spray printer. Unlike offset presses which use sheets of canvas, giclée prints are produced on specially-made rolls of canvas, 5 feet wide by dozens of feet long. Thus, a much larger print can be made with a giclée printer. As the canvas slowly unrolls, the ink is sprayed on by a nozzle that travels on an arm back and forth across the roll, almost magically putting down a fine mist that creates the image. See FAQs. OFFSET CANVAS PRINTING The printing process begins with the use of sheets of acid-free, high-quality artists’ canvas that have been specially made by the manufacturer for offset printing. Regular artists’ canvas often has irregular weaves and knots. Although these weaves and knots help make up the unique character of an original painting, they are not suitable for printing presses. The special sheets are fed into a multi-color offset printing press that lays down the inks to form the image. The inks are “archival” and are expected to last nearly a century without fading. QUALITY CONTROL Walter then inspects the prints and selects the ones for the curators to use. The curators use the selected prints to sort through the entire batch of prints, removing any prints that have blemishes or have slightly different coloration. In order to ensure the highest quality, up to 30-50% of the prints can be discarded. In a way, all of Walter’s prints are like “artist’s proofs,” carefully inspected and selected to meet the highest standards.
STRETCHING THE CANVAS Both offset and giclée canvas prints are stretched on stretchers just like the original painting. A stretcher-frame is assembled by joining together four pieces of wooden stretcher bars that are manufactured with matching grooves in the ends. The canvas print is then stretched tightly over the stretcher-frame and stapled along the sides. The print is ready for framing with no need for matting or glass.
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