Three (almost) Finished Paintings

The first two are finished. the last one needs about one more work session, maybe two. They are all 30" x 40". These paintings represent three months of painting. I am feeling pretty good about each one.

 

 

 

A Silkscreen Print

 

 

Making silkscreen prints is just so much fun.Everytime I make one, I want to abandon everything else I am doing to just make silkscreen prints. I made this cutie in honor of the noisy little squirrel who threw spruce cones at me, my family and dog all summer. He chittered and chattered at us all day everyday. It was never annoying, just funny.

 

I hope our squirrel comes back next summer.

A Tiny Woodcut

I made this tiny reduction woodcut alongside a much larger one with a similar subject and color scheme. My idea was to print them simultaneously using the same ink and running both through the press at the same time. I ended up putting the larger one on hold and finishing the little one because I needed the little prints for the end of semester print sale. I do plan to do this again--making two prints at the same time does not take much more time and results in two editions!

A Major Mess-Up

I am usually clear headed and do not make absent minded mistakes. In fact, I have never messed up a print due to carelessness prior to last week. Reduction prints come with the possibility of ruining the block and losing an edition, but I did not think it would happen to me. 

I started struggling with this print with the very first color because the paper I chose to use was peeling up, sticking to the ink. But I made the decision to carry on. I figured that the subsequent colors would cover up the "dry" areas and it would all be okay in the end. Five colors in, it was not okay so I decided to change a few things. I had printed half the edition with the brown color below to add a dark value to the trees. I stopped and carved out the trees to keep them light so as not to deal with the areas where the ink was not sticking to the paper. It looked okay with the light colors. I printed the remaining prints with dark blue shadows. The plan was to come in the next day, print the brown ones with a layer of dark blue, then carve the block and print all with the final darest color. I would then end up with two editions--one with light trees, one with darker trees--but all would have blue snow shadows.

Silly me. I came in and started hacking away. As always, I was in a hurry. I did not think, I just started carving. Halfway through carving all the blue shadow areas away I realized what I had done. I now have 13 prints with brown snow that cannot be changed.

 

I was able to finish the other half of the edition with the right colors, but lost a few to registration errors. I think I ended up with an edition of six (I started with 24).

I can't dwell on the time lost. I put these away so I do not have to look at them and started a new print...must keep moving forward...

Reaching Closure

I had a "moment" about 15 years ago while visiting the Picasso Museum in Barcelona. There were so many paintings. At one point I walked through room after room after room packed with paintings of pigeons.Then room after room of variations of Las Meninas. Seeing all of those works of the same subject felt like proof of genius--a need to figure something out and understand it completely. It made me love and respect Picasso for his tireless drive to paint.

I am not even going to begin to compare myself to Picasso. Not even for a second. However, knowing that he painted the same things over and over again has allowed me to give myself permission to do the same. My reasons are less about a needing to fully understand something from every possible angle. Instead, I go back to the same subject because I have already gotten to know it well after having painted it before and I am not always ready to let it go.

Reaching Closure is the title I gave to this painting. It represents the end of a long winter. In late March the sunlight is so intense. Snow starts to melt in the afternoons. Even though the temperatures can still be really cold, you can often feel the warmth from the sun on your face. You remember  how much you love that ball of fire and are filled with hope because you know that spring is going to come, the winter will end and soon the world will be green again.  

The sky was never yellow, but it feels yellow. Hints of green can be imagined.

I love that painting, it has always been one of my favorites.I cried the night I sold it (although I am please with where it ended up).

I used those two trees to make my first color woodcut.

I painted them again about a year ago, changing many things from the first one, but keeping, and intensifying, the yellow.

 

I made another woodcut, also titled Reaching Closure. This one is an eight color reduction print.

Looking Back

 

 

 Here is a look at 3 of my paintings from the last 10 years. The subject matter has not changed much, but my style has evolved. I use more color now and less line. I do not blend my colors together anymore, but now am more likely to lay shapes of color next to other shapes of color. My earlier works are more representational while my current projects tend to be more vibrant and abstracted.

 

 

 2004



2010

 

2013

 

 

This Week's Progress

I am still working on this 30"x40" painting of ground dogwood, a beautiful groundcover plant that covers sections of the boreal forest floor. In the spring, the leaves are green and a white flower surrounds the pale green berries. Later in the summer the flower falls off and orange berries appear. In autumn the leaves turn an intense red. I love the changes this plant goes through.

This is a painting I completed a few years ago of this same plant in early summer.

I made a reduction linocut of this subject as well.

A Finished Print and a New Painting

This reduction print is finished. There are 8 colors, although the 3 reds are so similar it is a subtle transition. I probably could have used 2 reds, or better yet, pushed up the contrast. I still have some minor touch ups to do and need to sign and edition. I have started working on my next reduction print and will write about it in my next post.

 

 

I am not quite finished with my other painting, but needed to get started on something new. I have been craving red for awhile. It seems that once the snow falls I am caught up in blues. This is a close up view of ground dogwood in the fall. I am realizing that I have a tendency to break many of my own rules. I always tell my students to tone their canvas before painting and to lay the colors out before applying thicker paint. I just jumped into this one. I made a print of a similar section of the ground last spring. The entire time I was working on that print I was thinking that it would make a nice painting.

Perfection

 

 I am not a perfectionist, and I find myself more and more pleased by this as I get older. I used to think not being a perfectionist was a flaw, that I should always be striving for perfection. But, I have discovered that if I do not let go at some point, I will never finish anything. Every piece of work I do could be better. I can see all the flaws, every single one of them. But I also love aspects of all of my work, well maybe not all, but most. The idea is to love more each time.

 

I have been making progress on this painting. There is a lot going on in this one. I re-darkened some of the trees since last week and have been repainting areas and adding definition.

 

 

Some changes since the last entry.

 

I am very happy with the way it is turning out. I am still struggling with the top--still not sure how I will resolve the background. I know I am getting close because I am getting excited about starting a new painting.

 

More work has been done to the top branch and the right-hand side. I added more pink leaves and berries to the middle and redefined some, but not yet all, of the dried leaves.

 

 

 

A Painting is a Problem to Solve



I am fighting with this painting right now. It started out so great--they always do. It is almost a guarantee that when I start a painting, that first time or two I spend working on it, I end on such a high note. I love where it is going and think to myself what a strange and odd thing it is that I have not yet been contacted for a solo show at the MOMA in NYC.

 



 

Then I work on it some more and some of it is okay, but my confidence gets a bit shaken. This stage drags on. I cannot give up, I have already put so much into it...and I have to beat it, I cannot let this canvas win.

 

 My mind looks something like this...

 

...This painting feels disorganized and too busy and I should have taken more reference photos and spent more time drawing...but it snowed last night, so I can't. There are dried fireweed fragments in my studio that I would like to throw out...I need to make it less complicated. I want the foreground to come forward, I need to push the trees back...less information...why do I paint anyway? I have no where to store all of these canvases. I should do some laundry...

 

 

I keep thinking about it, it is always on my mind. I also have photos on my phone of the painting at its most recent stage. I look at them and I start to put a plan together.  This morning I made the trees in the background lighter to push them back. I am not 100% convinced that this is the way to go, but I feel ready to fight. I am planning on a long painting session tonight.

 

Wish me luck!

 

Reduction Woodcut, a Work in Progress

I often wish that I had fallen in love with a process that yielded quicker results, something minimalistic and quick. But I did not. I am completely hooked on making reduction woodcuts. Though time consuming, this process allows me to print many colors from a single block. The process provides a perfect mix of serious planning, concentrated carving and repetitive printing. Despite all the planning, there is always just the right amount of drama and the unexpected.

 

 

This morning was relatively drama free. I printed color number three of 9. I was able to come up with the color I was hoping for right away.

 

 

 

Below you can see the print with the first two colors (two shades of yellow) next to the inked up block. After printing the darker yellow I carved away all of the areas I want to stay dark yellow. After printing this orangey brown color on all 24 sheets of paper I will carve away all the areas I wish to remain orangey brown. This process will be repeated six more times with six different colors.

 

 

You cans see the corner of my jig next to the block. There are three raised metal circles (pins) that correspond to holes that have been punched along the top of all 24 sheets of paper. I always place the paper on those "pins" and set the block in the same place underneath to ensure that the block prints in the same place with each color...every time. 

 

 

 

This is the best part...pulling the print off the block after running it through the press.

 

 

 

I am hoping to get the next color on there tomorrow.

Extrospection

I just had a show at Bear Gallery in Fairbanks. They did a beautiful job hanging my work. I shared the gallery with David-Rosenthal, a painter from Cordova. I included some images of several paintings and prints as well as my artist's statement below.

Gail E. Priday

Extropsection

Extrospection is the examination or observation of what is outside of oneself. In other words, ordinary sense perception. My work is inspired by what I observe on a daily basis. Rather than seeking out dramatic scenery and grand vistas, I am drawn to humble roadside trees, wild weedy plant-life, snow cover and the unique light of the Interior. I often focus on smaller elements of the landscape such as the bark of a tree, lichens, twigs and ground cover. The changes that occur seasonally are also of great interest. Our seasons are dramatic and they come and go with a force that is hard to miss. I feel an urgency to capture those changes. Melting snow, the new mud of spring, falling leaves, ripening berries, low winter light and long shadows in the snow are frequent subjects in both my paintings and prints.

Printmaking allows me to express my paintings in a new way. I often use a painting as a starting point for a print. After a painting has been worked for a number of weeks it becomes ingrained in my mind. I feel that I know the subject well and I am not quite ready to let it go. As you navigate the gallery you will find evidence of this re-use. In order to take an image from painting to print, I must simplify the composition and reduce the colors. Reduction woodcuts work well with this process. By making a reduction print I am able to obtain a number of colors from a single block. While there is much planning involved there is also an element of surprise. Printmaking is a beautiful mix of intense thought and meditative repetition.

I see the same landscape outside my windows every day. I walk past the same trees and hillsides, yet the view keeps changing. It is as if I am experiencing something new every time. My paintings and prints are an attempt to keep feeling that wonder and to connect with viewers who have noticed the same changes and experienced the same fascination.