Brenton Hamilton

Brenton works with unique cyanotype prints on paper and is a master of the 1840’s cyanotype process.

Brenton Hamilton is a visual artist and historian of photography, who lives and works on the coast of Maine. He combines human anatomy, astronomy and botanical imagery to create intriguing and provocative arrangements. You will notice in his work references to ancient Greece and Roman, as well as 15th and 16th century Netherland and Italian paintings. Hamilton appropriates symbols and visual elements from the history of art to arrive at a thoroughly contemporary vision.

This British process, cyanotype, from the 1840′s is principally iron salts coated onto fine French watercolor paper. The paper is coated repeatedly and dried in darkness – large composite film negatives are placed in contact and the larger frame is placed in sunlight. In the bright July sun of the Maine coast, the exposures can be up to 12 hours.

After such an exposure, many of his works are further embellished with layers of white gouache, silver leaf or gum Arabic washes.