What I’ve been up to, Part 2

 

A Very Old Friend
8” x 10”
Relief Print

I was browsing through old sketchbooks when I came across a drawing I made several years ago. This weathered tree, stood near the beginning of the trail that takes you to the top of Mt. San Jacinto in California (a peak I hiked years later). 

To get to the trailhead, you travel between two different worlds. You must take the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway from the desert floor up and over the rugged and deeply cut Chino Canyon to a station at Mt. San Jacinto State Park, which sits at an elevation of more than 8,500 feet.

In just minutes, you move from the heat of the desert to the forest. And it is a stunning forest! Our hike to the top of Mt. San Jacinto (10,800+ elevation) was one of my favorite hikes.

The Process

Finding some success with smaller pieces, I moved to a larger 8” x 10” sized plate for this project. It took several sessions in the studio to cut the image. In fact, I think I had to scrap the first version and had to carve this image twice.

I have to say the anticipation is excruciating—not knowing whether it will turn out until you pull that first test print. And getting a good result requires the perfect amount of ink on the plate, the perfect paper dampness, and then, carefully and thoroughly rubbing the paper against the plate to fully transfer a solid image.

 

Winter Morning
8” x 10”
Multicolor relief print

Early one winter morning after a snow storm, we were traveling on a road that takes you through gently rolling hills of ranches and farms. It was a lovely morning and I admired the golden tufts of grasses determinedly poking through the blanket of white.

The clouds were incredible: billowy and purple, the bottoms heavy with moisture. A band of purple-black clouds drifted in front of them, while the sky above was a persistent blue. When we got home that day, I made color sketches from memory that I later used for this project.

This piece was an experiment in texture and pattern and learning how to manipulate ink opacity and value. The prints I made had a broad range of color intensity and coverage—no two were alike.

 

Diné Country    
10” X 8”
Multicolor Relief Print

This piece is taken from a photo I took on our way back from a trip to California between Shonto and Page, Arizona along Highway 98. This rock feature sits in the middle of an interesting canyon—it’s my favorite section of road. And, it looks different every time we see it. I have countless photos of it!

There’s something about coming back home to Colorado across the Navajo Reservation. I love the big skies, wild washes, and familiar mesas and mountains; we count the landmarks as we make our way home. When we see Sleeping Ute Mountain, it feels as though we’re nearly there.

I hand-colored one of the prints before experimenting with additional color plates. Here I continued to struggle with registration and the right amount of ink. It’s easy to squirt out more ink than you need—and dang!—it’s expensive!

What I’ve been up to, Part 1

After a long hiatus, it’s time to return to providing regular updates to this blog! I’ve continued my adventures in art and will share what I’ve created over the past 2 ½ years.

Relief prints have been my passion and continue to be a major part of my art exploration. Since my earliest efforts to create multicolored block prints, I think I’ve come a long way, however I learn with each new project—and that’s what it’s all about.

 

Portrait of a Magpie

5” x 7”
(Artist’s proof – the “white” feathers were intended to be blue in the final print)

After the first “crude” pieces, my next effort required several visual references and drawing time to capture the subject, the magpie! I love this little guy! Magpies have striking black and white markings, with a flash of blue on their wing feathers in the right light.

They can be rather obnoxious if they take a disliking to you. A couple who bought a print of this fellow from me said the magpies hanging around their ranch regularly teased and tormented their dog. It seems that many people have a love-hate relationship with magpies. So far, I love them.

When it came to adding color, I had some registration issues with my blue plate due to inconsistent plate sizes. But I was happy with the image and experimented with adding color using colored pencils. To my delight, the results were good and I sold them all!

 

My next project: Winter Moon Tree

For our anniversary, we went to Taos for a weekend. It was early November, and the high country was blanketed by an early snow. The route we took was beautiful, eventually winding to the top of a plateau, where this lone tree stood in a field of snow. I added the moon. 😊

 

 

Winter Moon Tree
4” x 6”
Multicolor Relief Print

It took a couple of tries to get this result, which required four plates (one for each color). That’s the thing about relief prints: there are so many variables and so many things that can go wrong. When you’re cutting the image into the plates, one slip of the tool and you’ve chopped out an integral part of the image, as well as, occasionally, a chunk of finger. It was at about this stage in my journey that I managed to cut myself almost every time I was cutting a plate—tender red crescent moons on one or more fingertips. I like to say that when a piece turns out to be a success, it’s a relief.

Showtime!

In late spring, I learned of a pop-up print show Mancos Commons was presenting mid-summer. Determined to participate, in addition to the prints I’d created, I went back to some old plates and printed some new images, hand-coloring a few (since I’d discovered good results with the magpie!). It was a fun show, and I was inspired by techniques used by other artists. I sold several pieces, which spurred me to continue working with relief printing.