Welcome Spring!

 I'm excited that Spring is technically here, even though there is still a lot of snow in my yard. We had a big snowstorm in my area about a week and a half ago, that left 18" of the wet and heavy stuff in its wake. Fortunately the sun is high in the sky now, and what's left is melting rapidly. 

I love this image of mourning doves sheltering in a large pine outside my window. Everything is values of grays and white, and the birds have balanced themselves well in the composition.

During the storm, I was working on a new block print of a decidedly more colorful image. 

I had fun texturizing the background of this print with a pattern of leaves overall. Here is the final result!

"Daffodils" 

5"x 6.5" 

Enjoy the longer hours of sunlight! Happy Spring!

November Days

 November has graced us with some very nice weather this year! Although as I write this, rain is coming down in buckets! 

I can't resist taking pictures on my walks. The colors of the foliage are ranging from subtle to vibrant, and it has been great to be able to get out and enjoy them.

                                                        Piscataquog River in Goffstown

Dorrs Pond in Manchester

 Uncanoonuc Mountains in the background

I have been working on some ideas for Christmas cards, and played around today with some textures using a Gelli plate. I had already carved out a series of snowflakes from small easy-cut blocks, to use as traditional stamps on a snowman design. Then I experimented a bit with the Gelli plate to make background textures for other cards. 

Golden Open acrylics

The Gelli plate can be used to make a variety of textures

 

                                                Some variations of the snowflake textures.

I will have some of my reduction block prints in an art show later this month at the Two Villages Art Society Gallery in Contoocook, NH. I framed five of my newest prints to hang in the show. The gallery will be running this exhibit and sale from November 26--December 24th.

You can never have too many cat pictures! Hello from Wiley.

Lily Pad Print

 Earlier this month I included a drawing of the "lily pad" print that I had started. The block size is 6" x 8" and is a soft-cut type. Since I don't have access to a printing press right now, I've had to use that type of plate for all my recent editions. I really love the easiness of carving, but it takes a bit of elbow grease to get the quality of the prints that I want. I use a baren and a wooden spoon to get the pressure needed. 

The first layer of ink was the green of the lily pads. I cut away the white areas first, as can be seen in the photo below.

In the next step, I carved out all the lily pads.

Then I created a blue blend for the water.

Layer 2-the water

The next step was to carve away the areas of water that I wanted to remain. The last layer is a deep blue to create the illusion of reflections on the water, and to define the shadows.

Final stage of block

The finished print

I matted the print in an 11" x 14" white mat, and it's ready to be posted on my Etsy shop. 

Finally, a little pop of color in the backyard!

Happy Earth Day on the 22nd!

 

Little Bird Prints

 I've been working on some new projects in my studio this month. Currently, I am printing a series of three popular birds that are frequent visitors to the yard and feeders. I chose a black-capped chickadee, a tufted titmouse, and a slate-colored junco as my subjects. They have similar colors, and are about the same size in real life. I started with the chickadee print, then realized I should have worked on them all simultaneously, so the the color layers would be better matched. For the other two I'm doing it that way.

Above are the three plates lined up together.

These are the chickadee prints. I still have one more darker layer to add to this print.

Junco stage 1

Junco stage 2

Titmouse stage 2

I'm ready to add the red to the berries next. I'll use a small roller, and try to keep the ink only on the berries, as the red is hard to cover up if I inked the whole plate.

The foliage has been beautiful this Fall, and has lasted longer than usual, I think. The intense reds have faded away but the oranges and golds have been stunning! I can't resist taking pictures when I've been out walking around town.

With all the restrictions around Covid19, It is such a pleasure to get out and enjoy nature! 

Best wishes!

Jane

Starting a New Print--"Shells"

I've been working on an idea for a new reductive block print. I love the ocean, and the native shells that wash up on the beaches. I want to use a limited palette of colors as well, so I worked up a composition that incorporates mussels, small clam shells, and a heart-shaped rock.

This is the drawing that I created on a sheet of tracing paper. I used the tracing paper for the pencil drawing, so that I could easily transfer the image onto the block by flipping it over, and rubbing the back with a spoon. The size of the drawing and the block is 6"x 18".

After transferring the image to the "soft-cut" block, I outlined the shells with a permanent marker. so that the drawing won't rub off during the printing process. The image on the block is reversed from the original drawing, so that it will look like the original after it is printed.

I plan on using the natural colors of the shells---brown, gray, blue, and cream. The paper is Rives Lightweight white (more like an off-white), and the ink is Akua intaglio. The ink works very well for relief printing, and can be cleaned with Dawn detergent and water. I've placed the block in its template, taped down the "pins" for registration, and taped the "tabs" onto each sheet of the printing paper. There will be 12 prints made from the block using this technique.

Stay tuned for further progress.

Mermaid Print

I just started working on a new reduction block print. The topic is a little different from my usual subjects, which are often landscapes and birds. I like drawing mermaids, but I haven't tried a multi-colored print before. Here are the beginning steps of the process.

 First move the cat out of the way

 Tracing paper pattern is placed on the block and rubbed with a spoon

 The light image on the block needs to be outlined with a Sharpie marker

The block is ready for carving and printing.

Odiorne print

I've been working on a new print of the rocks at Odiorne Sate Park. I've been blending colors on my brayers to get various gradients of value and color in each layer. I've finished the sky, and will be working on the colors in the rocks next. Probably 3 or 4 layers to go. I'm using a soft-cut block, Akua inks, and Rives Light printmaking paper. There is a NHAA show in Portsmouth that I'd like to enter it in if it comes out well, and I'm finished by the deadline at the end of the month.

Spring is arriving this week! Snow is still blanketing my yard, but the sun is brighter, so hopefully there will be some melting going on. The 10 day forecast shows 20's, 30's and 40's for high temperatures, with a low temperature tomorrow morning of -6 degrees. You've got to be kidding me!

"Puzzle Print"

I finally finished a project that I've been working for a while. One of my friends, Hannah Phelps had been creating some beautiful woodblock prints using plates that she cut into pieces with a scroll saw. I wanted to see if I could do something similar using "easy cut' blocks and an X-acto knife.
I started off with a sketch of beach roses and a background of hills and sea.

I transferred  the image to a 6" x 9" piece of "easy cut" and outlined everything with a permanent marker. Using an X-acto knife, I tried to carefully cut out the flowers, and separated other sections of the block. You can see the first two layers will be light blue and yellow. I have the block firmly locked into a mat board frame with guidelines to help me line up the subsequent layers.

Here you can see the results of my progress.

I continued to cut away areas in the flowers, leaves, and background, and printed layers of pinks, blues, and greens. I used Akua inks and a lightweight block printing paper.

The block ready for the last layer of dark green ink...

And here is the finished print.

As this is a reduction print, I like the way the pinks stay pink, and the greens stay green. I did a regular reduction print of beach roses last year, and I found it difficult to choose the sequence of colors as there would be some areas of overlay using these complementary color tones. The hardest part of this process was maneuvering the inked flowers into the rest of the block each time I made a print. As an experiment trying this puzzle technique, I feel it was fairly successful. I ended up with 5 or 6 quality prints out of this edition of 20, and have a better idea of what to do, and what not to do next time.