Black Apple Blossom

Black Apple Blossom uses the combination of copper-sulphate etching and carborundum to push apple blossom — a subject usually treated in chalky pastels — into a darker, more dramatic tonal register. Copper sulphate, used as a non-toxic alternative to traditional ferric chloride or nitric acid mordants, produces a distinctive bite on copper that Doyle has explored throughout her career. Carborundum, a coarse abrasive grit fixed to the plate and inked intaglio, holds dense black ink and yields the velvety shadows that give the print its title. The composition likely sets pale, five-petalled apple blossom with its prominent stamens against a deep near-black ground, inverting the usual apple-orchard luminosity. The work belongs to her sustained engagement with Irish orchard subjects — apples, pears, quinces — but stands at the more atmospheric end of that body of work, closer in mood to a nocturne than to a straight botanical record. It is characteristic of the technical experimentation she has pursued at Graphic Studio Dublin since the early 1990s.