A Frugal (sort of) Experiment

 

 

 

Landscape Layers

6" x 9"

Relief print

I ordered linoleum plates from a company in the UK that were sized to a UK standard, however they came at such a good price, I thought it would be easy enough to cut them down to 8” x 10”. Relief printing plates are not cheap, so I saved the strips of material I cut off, thinking I’d do something with them eventually.

Well, one day I got the idea to carve the various leftover 8” x 1.5” pieces into “layers” of landscape. I cut a river, pine trees, 2 cloud versions, mountains, and hills. Then, I experimented with arranging the strips in different ways. 

Good idea, but poor outcome. I liked sections of the prints, but overall, they were a disappointment. An artist friend commiserating with me over the failure brilliantly suggested I cut them up and make cards out of them. They turned out GREAT and I sold them all!

Next, I experimented with the same plates on black paper—this time, with some success! I played around with more opaque colors and discovered I could use the pine tree plate right side up AND upside down! The colors on the black paper really popped nicely and created a unique result. 

I sold two of the prints in the series, and one of the buyers requested a companion piece that would be different, but compatible with the print they purchased.

Easier said than done.

About 20 prints later, I came up with a couple of options, one of which was chosen by my client (yay!). But what to do with all the leftovers? Some worked, some did not. Again, I did a little creative cropping and trimming and ended up with some nice pieces and a few cards! 

Catching Up - Part 3

 

Manter Creek
8” x 10”
Multicolor Relief Print

Several years ago, we went on a backpack trip into the Domeland Wilderness in California. It is a remote, little-known wilderness that burned about 10 years before our trip. This resulted in an incredible landscape with patches of standing and fallen burnt trees intermingled with baby trees that sprouted after the fire, as well as tremendously large trees the fire left behind. The trail was challenging. We had to climb over and crawl under more trees than we could count.

We camped on Manter Creek, an oasis surrounded by land that had mostly burned. The cool of the creek in the heat of September was a delight at the end of each day. The nights were surprisingly cool, so the campfire was a welcome addition to our circle of friends.

Over the four-day trip, we only saw two people and a couple of rattlesnakes. One night, a pack of coyotes ran through our camp yipping like wild teenagers whose parents were out of town.

Here is the piece with only three color plates completed.

 

It was the wildest and most beautiful place I’ve ever been. I created several paintings and monoprints from this trip. The idea for this piece is taken from one of those paintings. Having a familiar subject allowed me to explore technique and color in the process of creating the prints.

 

Wild Iris
8” x 10”
Multicolor Relief Print

I love Wild Iris. It was rare to see them in the San Gabriel Mountains of California. But here in Colorado, there are fields of them in early summer. Especially after a wet winter. It’s truly incredible.

This piece was also taken from a watercolor painting I did of an Iris that was a delightful surprise on a trail we hiked frequently. It was a “reward” after climbing a fairly steep hill that was deeper into the hike. You know, past the point where the casual hikers wearing tennies and carrying a 12 oz. bottle of water give up on “hiking”?

 

Here, you can see the partially completed prints.

Something unique about this piece is that I mixed the plate colors in such a sequence that I didn't have to wash my inking surface between colors. I went from pale yellow to coral, then pink, on to green, blue, and then black. This created color harmony as each succeeding color had a little of the previous color in it.