Barbara Rae RA started to make screenprints with Dr Carol Robertson in 1995. They collaborated closely from 1998 until 2007 and created a body of work which has been collected widely.

During the first stage of making her screenprints Barbara Rae draws and paints on clear substrates with artist’s materials and a selection of specially designed tusches: these paintings are referred to as autographic positives. Each tusche has its own characteristics and is used to create particular types of mark, perhaps grainy reticulated washes or a dry brush stroke. Sometimes the tusches are diluted or mixed together to create further effects. Working with these dark coloured tusches, Barbara Rae has to imagine how these marks will eventually interact as printed layers of colour. She may paint and draw as many as sixty positives in order to build up the complex interweaving elements of her images.

Once the positives are dry they are transferred to screen meshes to form an accurate stencil. All the painted marks become open areas of mesh through which the selected colour can be printed onto paper. The screen holding the marks is then fitted to the press and the image is squeegeed through the mesh onto the paper below. The printed paper is placed on a rack to dry, the mesh is refilled with colour and the next sheet of paper is positioned under the mesh ready for printing. In this way the image from each painted positive is printed sequentially on each sheet of paper in the edition. The editions are screenprinted  by Dr Carol Robertson using the same type of artist’s paints that Barbara Rae works with, and the surface qualities range from glossy marks to dense powdery colours. All images are printed to archival standard on acid-free mould-made paper.