The Rain Persists, Hence More Artsy Projects

Another warm, wet day, and another block print. I’m amusing myself pretty well doing this. It could have been knitting or playing banjo, but this is another way of exploring the world in a visual mode. I like reducing everything to black or white, on or off.

Of course, adding the color to the print is like pouring rum in the Coke. A party on paper!

I hear thunder approaching, so I’d better hurry this up before it gets here and I have to disconnect. I’ve been doing a lot of that lately. More rain is on the way. Cheers!

Rainy Day Projects

Argemone (wild Prickly poppy)- hand-colored linocut on mulberry paper, 6″x6″

It’s been pouring since, I think, March- not that I’m complaining-so this morning I cut some rudbeckia, sunflowers, daisy fleabane, Queen Anne’s lace and some kind of sedge or rush, I confess ignorance and invite identification. This will be a sketch toward a linoleum cut with a goldfinch added in with the flowers.

Linoleum cuts have been added to the mix over here;

I’m trying to get a handle on it. It’s a nice, low tech way of making prints, and favors the strong, simple design rather than complex detail.

Argemone- original sketch in felt tip pen

I’ve done a couple this week and added color after the print was made

(back of the spoon, water-based black ink, mulberry paper), using ordinary watercolor and a sable brush. My goal is to learn to do reduction prints: multiple color achieved by cutting away parts of the block for each color run. Your edition is necessarily limited; the block is destroyed by the process. A great tutorial for the process can be seen here.

I’ll post more as I go. This is a perfect project for bringing the outdoors in, all except the rain.

Step Away From The Easel

My friend Becky is a wise woman; she can tell I’m going to work this one to death. It’s time to move on and call it done.

Thanks Becky!