FOLLOWING THIS SECTION ON THE ORIGINS OF RELIEF ARE FURTHER EXPLANATIONS including the process for making intaglio reliefs
ORIGINS OF RELIEF
Origins of Relief Painting

In 1975, while studying drawing and painting at the Art Students League and sculpture at the New School, I decided to portray what I was saw in a new way. After about a year of false starts, I began reading up on the physiology of vision at Flower 5th Avenue hospital library and was attracted to Egyptian reliefs at the Met. I realized It might be possible to create visual illusions in a shallow three dimensional space.
One day I decided to do a still life of pears on a plate. Instead of painting on the front of the canvas, I pressed some sculpture clay into the back of the stretched canvas, forming a tablet. I sketched the outlines of the pears and the plate on the clay with my brush handle and then built up the pear forms with more clay.
For the cast shadows, I instinctively hollowed out the clay. The light from the north windows of my 7th Street studio lit up the pears and created real shadows in the hollows. I was stunned by the concept of working directly with light and shadow on a relief surface. I had fallen through two dimensions into a new realm.
I have been exploring this realm ever since, marking trail with my reliefs, now numbering over 1,200 original pieces and many more editions. I have learned a new way of seeing, and by necessity have invented new materials, easels, tools and methods of working. After 40 years, I have barely scratched the surface.
First Relief 1975-01 Pears Acrylic on clay 8.5"x9.5"x1"
Here are photos of my 7th Street NYC studio, my 649 Mai Street Brewster, MA studio, my 1772 Main Street, Brewster studio, tool, materials, etc.