Summer Still Life & A New Obsession

 

Summer Still Life
8” x 10”
Limited Edition Relief Print

I tried my hand at another reduction print, inspired by a photo I took last summer: the veggies dramatically bathed in bright sunlight, casting deep shadows across the surface. 

The reduction process, as I've mentioned before, is a bit scary. And for me, highly unpredictable. Determining what to cut and what to leave is still very challenging. While the process results in a limited number of prints, that's not necessarily a bad thing. There's only so much room in the studio after all. 

This piece was a welcome relief from my latest obsession, weaving. In early November I purchased a table loom and have been learning how to weave. My technique is rather crude at this point, and I’ll need hours decades of practice to improve. 

My first piece was experimenting with basic weaving (“plain weave”) and then creating simple shapes and patterns. I tore out the yarn many times and reworked many areas and at one point, accidentally cut my warp (the framework you weave the yarn, or “weft” through) and had to totally start over. However, I was not discouraged and kept at it. For any weavers out there, please excuse my amateur results. I hope to continue to improve.

Next, I jumped right to something complicated (yeah, no baby steps here) when I decided to try to create a landscape. Again, I “unwove” and rewove most of the piece several times to repair mistakes and after several weeks, finally finished it. I’m not crazy about it as it lost something through several reworkings. Plus, the craftsmanship is still very rough, but I learned a LOT and have seen incremental improvement.
 

High Country, Fall
16.5” x 12”

I was midway through completing the landscape piece for the second time (when I decided I needed a break) and created Summer Still Life.

Currently I’m experimenting with a smaller piece to learn “wedge weaving” …stay tuned for notes on how that turns out.

Reduction Printing: Madness?

Yellows & Greens

8” x 10”
Hand-rubbed Relief Print
Limited Edition

I was inspired by a summer day’s harvest of yellow squash and tomatillos. It seemed like a good subject to try using the reduction process to create the image. With the reduction process, you continually cut away portions of the plate, which results in the plate having only the material left that prints the color, which in this case, was a grey-black.

With relief printing, there are many steps. It’s kind of scary, really, as you have to get to the end of the steps to determine whether the result is successful or not. I'm still learning the reduction process and my efforts are still a bit crude.

First I start with a drawing.

 

Then, I trace the drawing. When the image is transferred to the plate, the tracing is flipped so the image is backward.

I then strengthen the image on the plate. In the image below, I have cut away the areas I want to be white.

Here, I have printed a lighter and a darker yellow, plus a light green. With each pass, I cut away the part of the plate that printed the colors I want to keep. You are overprinting lighter areas with the next darker color. 

It is really easy to accidentally cut away more than you planned to remove, which adds a level of challenge and excitement to the process. It's also difficult to capture the nuance of shape that you can with a drawing. Cutting shapes is tricky. 

Even though I have a system to help register each printing pass, another issue is miss-aligning the paper to the plate when you transfer each color.

Below, I have printed a slightly darker green and a blue. 

In the final image, you can see I printed the golden brown and then the gray-black.

 Viola! I started with 14 sheets and ended up with 10 final prints. It's not just art, it's an adventure!

Viola!

Heart Beets

 

Heart Beets

8” x 10”

Reduction Linoleum Block Print

Beautiful beets from the garden! They were very small this year, and I harvested and ate more beet greens than beet roots.

 

This piece was my first effort at the reduction printing process. As I embark on this new technique, I am terrified. It takes careful planning and carving! 

 

How it Works
First, I cut away the areas I want to be white and then print a light base color, which in this case, was a pale yellow. Next, I cut away the portions I want to leave as the base color. This is repeated with each subsequent color. There were six color passes in the final image. The scary part is how easily you can accidentally cut away a chunk that was supposed to be a color you have not yet printed. I speak from experience. Fortunately, I was able to touch it up.

 

Ultimately, with this process you destroy all but your last color plate by the time you finish (in this case, black). So, it results in a limited run of prints. I started with 14 sheets and ended up with 10 prints of this image.

 

Not bad for a first try.

The Struggle is Real

Pink Peonies

Acrylic on Wood panel

16" x 20"

 

If you’ve been in my studio lately you’ve seen this painting languishing, quietly saying, “Are you ever going to finish me?” Seems I finally did.

 

Friends of ours gave us this bouquet of peonies, and they were so beautiful, I had to paint them. They have several bushes in their yard that bloom spectacularly each year and they shower neighbors and friends with colorful bouquets.

I love peonies, but a deer yanked up the plant we had, just after one lonely blossom appeared. Apparently, she hadn’t heard that deer don’t eat peonies. It was probably the same doe that ate our ristra (made of dried red peppers) one winter. The deer will eat just about everything in our neighborhood. 

This piece is unique in that it is painted on a wooden panel with 1-inch sides—so the painting is continued on those side panels. 

Where the struggle I referred to comes in to play is that I have at least half a dozen unfinished paintings that I work on, set aside, work on some more, and so on.

 

I’ve got a lovely mountain scene from above Andrews Lake with a section I’ve reworked 3 times and I’m still not happy with it. (Grrrr.) Another is a waterfall that has great promise once I figure out what to do with the trees.

 

It’s always fun to start something new, but not always easy (or fun) to finish.

 

And, something else has captured my attention recently—a return to experimenting with woodcuts—and that’s been much more exciting. Stay tuned as that journey unfolds.

Simple Shapes, Brilliant Color

Sunset Nectarines

10" X 8"

Acrylic on Canvas

Already, I’m feeling the pressure as we begin to frame pieces for the show. This piece is evidence of that; it’s framed already!

Over last week’s long weekend, I had a glorious day of painting, painting, and more painting. I touched-up and varnished one piece and then started and completed this painting. It’s not often that I get an extended block of painting time like that. These luscious nectarines had been taunting me for a few days, rich and ripe and screaming with brilliant sunset corals, reds, and oranges. I just had to paint them. 

This was a “flow” painting. All the art forces are in perfect alignment, and the painting just magically pours out of me somehow while I loll in color and texture. Ahhh. These kinds of paintings feel so good--especially after I’ve struggled with a piece.

On another note, I’m making prints and note cards in preparation for the show. I’m printing with archival inks on fine art paper and so far, they are looking good. Let me know if there are paintings you are especially fond of to help me decide which to print. I’ll be making prints in 5 x 7, 8 x 10, 9 x 12, and 16 x 20. If there is something specific you want, just send me an email.

Until next time…