Summer Joy

 

Summer Joy
10” x 8”
Reduction Relief Print
Limited Edition of Seven

In August, we went on a mini-garden tour. It was wonderful and inspiring. One of the gardens was part of a farm, that in addition to a greenhouse jam packed with an obscene bounty of vegetables, there were rows and rows of flowers grown from which the farmer makes natural fabric dyes (check out farmandfolk.com).

When I saw the row of Rudbeckia (which I learned yields a lovely pale gold dye), I knew the blossoms would be a fine subject for the reduction process. But it took me a few months to come back to this image. 

First, I did a rough drawing and then a second drawing using colored markers to think through each color. I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of the reduction technique, though this time, I forgot to reverse the image when I transferred it to the plate. However, I think I like the final print better with the image reversed. 

We’ve had an extremely dry and warm winter. It was starting to feel like early spring—but without any green. I think that's what drew me to the subject. 

Ironically, as I carved the plate for the final color pass of black ink, the weather changed and winter finally arrived, bringing us a good eight inches of snow. And there was more on the way…last night gave us another eight inches. Let the shoveling begin!