First Proof of "Asleep in the Chair"

Last year I did a series of simple, small eight male nudes in white line woodcut, and this is the first print building off that work. I'd like to eventually have a series of larger nudes where the background is more elaborate and interacting with the figure.

I love the drawing in this print, but the colors in this first proof doesn't work. Sometimes with white line woodcuts I just need to print a couple before I really figure out what colors work.

Even though the image is only 12" x 15" it took over 4 hours just to print once. (My hand is killing me.) So I think I'm going to spent some really contemplating the next set of color choices before I go forward printing a second.

"Stretching"

Woodcut reduction in 4 layers

Oil based ink on Rives BFK

7" x 12" (image) 10" x 15" (paper)

Edition of 17 

Five years ago I made a print titled Self Portrait With Sasquatch. It was also a nude of myself with one of my pet cats. I loved how that print turned out and always wanted to make a similar reduction woodcuts on the same subject of the naked figure in domestic settings. I did some nice ones of my husband (Rubber Duck and New Hat) and daughters (In the Tent With Bunny, Life Preserver and Climbing Into the Crib), but hadn't managed to make another nude of myself that I'm happy with until now. Another title for this could be Self Portrait with Aubrey. Aubrey recently turned 18, so he's been featured in many of my works of art over the years. Not sure how many more he'll make it into before he passes on (Sasquatch is now gone) so I'm happy to immortalize him a few more time in art as he exists today. 

This print was also created for the Baren Forum for Woodblock Printmaker's Print Exchange #69. It is the 8th exchange I've participated in through the Baren Forum. I have collected so many wonderful prints through these exchanges. As a woodcut printmaker I'm so grateful for this professional community of artists. 

Untitled Reclining Male Nude White Line Woodcut - first proof

The image is 11" x 8". It is a white line woodcut printed with watercolors on 140 lb watercolor paper.

This is a first proof. I love the drawing, but I think I still need to work out the colors. Right now it's very circus when I was going more for equatorial. Maybe neither is a good idea. I can't seem to find the landing pad. *sigh* 

"Summer" by Thea Proctor

It is exquisitely hot.

One lounges in a hammock, luxuriously spread out, shaded by a parasol and gleaming in the moment. The other has escaped this place and moment in time through a picture window on a page. The dog is with them, always present, steadfast and keen.

Monotypes by 3rd and 4th Graders

This week I had some of my summer camp students make monotypes. I had them hike up to a pond and creek with drawing boards and do some drawings from life outside.

For the monotype prints I had the kids put their drawings or photographs I took on our hike under a piece of thick transparency paper and paint in the drawing/photographs using Createx monotypes colors. The kids painted quickly and kept the paint wet so they could print on dry paper. They did the pressing with their hands.

This first image -by Dean whose other work I wrote about last week - is of one of the sheets of transparency paper after he printed it. It was so beautiful, we both considered it its own work of art.

The rest of the photos are monotype prints by other students in the class.

"Sunset"

Four color reduction linocut, 4" x 6" (image). the tired sunsets and the tired people - it takes a lifetime to die and no time at all. -Charles Bukowski

"Superposition"

Four color reduction linocut, 4" x 6" (image).

A rock or stone is not a subject that, of itself, may interest a philosopher to study; but, when he comes to see the necessity of those hard bodies, in the constitution of this earth, or for the permanency of the land on which we dwell, and when he finds that there are means wisely provided for the renovation of this necessary decaying part, as well as that of every other, he then, with pleasure, contemplates this manifestation of design, and thus connects the mineral system of this earth with that by which the heavenly bodies are made to move perpetually in their orbits.

-James Hutton, the Father of Modern Geology

"Flowers of Edo" by Fumio Fukita

Three years ago I wrote about a Japanese woodcut of a single explosion of firework (by Kasamatsu Shiro) that resembled a great flower in the sky. That blossom looked like a sunflower. This one seems more like a chrysanthemum, which strikes me as unseasonable. Fireworks in real life are colorful, huge, and stunning, but also moving and a bit chaotic. In contrast, the composition here is like an altar. This blossom of concentric circles is like a Great Eye, stationary, balanced, and watching over its lowly subjects on the ground.

I cannot help but feel that this is an image of fireworks that is not so much about fireworks as it is an expression of awe and yearning for order in an unpredictable, ever-changing, and often frightening universe.