Chris Orr is a narrative artist whose work ranges across variety of subjects and ideas. Drawing and painting are a key part of his output, he also produces a lot of original prints in traditional mediums.
When I opened his website, the first image popped out. I really got a surprise. The work is so busy but in a great order and details are everywhere. It must be so amazing if you can see the work instead of see it on computer. When I looked through, some familiar pictures came into my eyes which are his Shanghai work.
His website is great which allows you to magnify the picture so that you can see every detail. Just look at this, how many buildings are there and how many people! I was so amazed that how this can be done by printing. If you just magnify any part of it, the work is so beautiful and highly detailed. From the top, we can see buildings, rivers, boats in the river, writings on the building, viaduct bridge with full of traffics, advertising board, traditional buildings, some of them even with air-conditioners on, street with shops and crowded of people who are walking or on their bikes, even utility poles with tangled wires. Oh, all of these make me feel miss China!
Looked at the video which tells you how he produce the prints. This type of print called lithography, he draws on a large piece of stone which with very smooth surface. He designed the whole picture on paper first, cut them out and positioned them on the stone and then work his way through on drawing on the stone. No correction can be made! For such a complicated drawing, you need to be right at every step. It just seems impossible! He printed black and white first, then work out the colors. I did not quite understand how he put the color in. It looks like through screen printing.
I noticed the price. This one is on sale for £1000. It had 30 editions which means one drawing can make £30000 if it all sold.
I think his work is very interesting. Need to find sometime to have a good look. Also found some of his talks on Tate. They are quite long. Need to find time to listen.
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