The Inside Story behind the G. Harvey Hand Pulled Original Graphics Program

In 1993 G. Harvey and his publisher, Somerset House Publishing began to explore the possibility of producing extremely limited hand pulled original fine art graphics. They contacted Mark L. Eaker the President of Gregory Editions Fine Art and formed a joint venture with him to introduce Gerald into the world of Fine Art Graphics. Mark a 20 -Year veteran of the Fine Art Industry was extremely well versed in the production and distribution of Hand Pulled Original Lithographs and Serigraphs. Mark was instrumental in guiding Gerald thru the various processes visiting a number of printing studios before deciding on a studio in New York that Gerald would comfortable with.

Previously, G. Harvey had only produced offset prints and was not experienced with the techniques of Etchings, Engravings, Original Lithographs and Serigraphs. Gerald and Mark visited numerous fine art studios throughout the United States in order to familiarize Gerald with the craft involved and the artisans he may choose to work with in the creation of this new medium for G. Harvey’s work.

After discovering the age old engraving process and experimenting with a number of hand colored etchings, Gerald decided on producing his first limited edition Hand Pulled Original Lithograph. Testing the medium Gerald produced two small jewels called “Trolley’s on Broadway” and “springtime" in Washington”. The pair was called the Avenues of America Suite.

The printing involved close work with a hand picked chromist and a printing studio staff that was run by Eleanor Ettinger, long time fine art print maker and highly regarding art printing pioneer. Eleanor had printed for hundreds of successful artists including one of Gerald’s favorite artists Norman Rockwell. The chromist under Eleanor’s direction would hand draw each individual plate for each individual color. Gerald would proof and approve each plate. The printing would be completed on an 1800’s vintage Vioren Press brought over from France in the early 1900’s and converted from Steam power to Electric power. The stone plates were replaced by the newer metal plate technology that allowed crisper and cleaner printing.

The two pieces in the Avenue of America series became the forerunners of G. Harvey’s Original Graphic Program. The edition was printed on Arches paper and a deluxe edition was done on a Japanese hand made rice paper called Japon.
The success of the first series of Hand-Pulled Lithographs led to a full image production of a larger piece hand picked by Gerald as the First Full Size Hand Pulled Original Graphic. The image picked was “Flower Market” and it has gone on to become the single most sought after Original Graphic and now sells for over $ 10,000 if you can find one.

The success of the program led to 3 new releases for each of the next ten years. Mark and Gerald worked on choosing images that not only included his highly successful city scenes, but also featured his incredible talent in depicting western scenes.Experimenting with the process further after Eleanor retired, Gerald and Mark discovered a printing studio utilizing the hand pulled lithograph process and able to apply additional color plates of hand pulled serigraphy to produce what was termed a Serilith or combination of Hand Pulled Lithography and Hand Pulled Original Serigraph. The editions took between 3 and 6 months to produce and required hundreds of man hours and numerous touch plates and proofs to execute.

Gerald also produced a number of Hand Pulled Serigraphs with another studio until the Studio closed. It was decided that the arduous process and time required and cost of production, as well as not wanting to train new artisans that Gerald would retire from producing Hand Pulled Original Graphics. Thus the End of an Era.

The series produced by G. Harvey remain some of the most successful images produced and continue to showcase this amazing artist and amazing technique.