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.