Luce Naval was born in Paris in 1938, and was attracted to art at a young age. Initially focused on sculpture and painting, she also discovered and pursued her passion for graveur (colored engraving) in the mid 1960’s.At age 17, she attended the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris, with continued training in subsequent years at the Atelier Yancesse Beaux-Arts, and finally spending five years at the legendary Atelier 17. Her pursuit of excellence in her work also took her to Madrid (Academie San Fernando) and Denmark (Kunst Academiet Beaux Arts de Copenhague). She has won numerous competitions. Over a span of five decades she has mounted solo and group expositions of her engravings all over the world, including Australia, the United States, and throughout Europe.Naval has been archived at the Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris), Bibliotheque Royale Albert 1er (Brussels), Artoteket (Sweden), and the Musee de la Gravure (Buenos Aires).She currently resides in the French countryside in a small village in southern Burgundy, where she has her studio.Luce was discovered again at the age of 83 when her neighbor and a friend of the gallery encouraged her to show her work in the United States. The gallery thanks Michael and Sheila for connecting us with this special artist. We are honored to represent. Process in words from Luce: "The « embossed » technique started one day in a very hot April’s day in Paris. I went outAnd later saw that I couldn’t ink properly the plate and the result was very messy on the plate.>Then I decided to keep the deep bite white , having sometimes to clean it before printing.Normally I would use a lay of wax to protect the plate from the acid’s bite, but it doessn’t resistfor long so I starded to use a sticky and transparent plastic, passing it on the press to avoidany Bubble and then draw on it and cut out the dipper spaces I wanted. From time to timeI would take the plate out of the acid (abt 20 O/O diluted in water) let it dry and putting itdown again while using a pigeon or chicken ( !) feather to remove the deposit due to theoxydation. So the dippest part in the beginning of the plate, the less deep parts are touchedby a softer roller. Its a long technique and tricks that one discovers while printing.Hayter often used two different rollers and if the different colors are applied with differentRolls (quite heavy) you can have the colors mixed together while adding the sameQuantity of oïl. Parts of the plate are also inked by hand and a warm plate and thenWiped out with a good newspaper so the color remains only in the tiny oxided holes…After I will use one or two rollers.The technique of making a plate is one thing, like a sculpture, often I started inspired by aDrawing I had made sometime ago. W hen finished the difficulty is to revive it and makeMany many ennerving essays…The embossed thechnique can be used only with a very good paper (English sometimes)Made from chiffons and humid. This technique agrees well with me since I have a formation for sculpture."