After the Storm

It has been a long week, this week.  When hurricane Irene came through this state she did lots of damage.  We were fortunate to come through unscathed.  But lots of time was spent taking care of people whose lives were turned upside down by the flooding of virtually every brook, stream and river.  So many roads and bridges washed out.  So many houses damaged and lost.  So many lives altered dramatically.  Every morning folks met at the elementary school here in Woodstock to volunteer in whatever way they could.  What a fine community of generous, involved, caring people we have in Vermont.  I am so grateful to be part of that community.
And, finally, despite the storm, my floral print calendar is complete--here is the final print intended for November....

"Rose and Holly"

9"x12" -  soft cut linoleum print

"Rose and Holly"

9"x12" - hand colored linoleum print

At the moment, all twelve prints are being scanned and turned into a proof calendar.  I'm excited to see what it looks like!  I still need to make some decisions about typeface, binding, etc. after I see it.  But I'm almost there.
And then the question becomes what to do next?

One More to Go!

It has taken me much longer than I thought it would to create twelve finished prints for my floral calendar.  Buying one house, selling another, moving from place to place and then painting and renovating is very time and energy intensive!  

But I am now working on the last month of the calendar, involving roses, and here is the latest print, for the month of January. 

"Amaryllis and Paper White"

linoleum print - 9"x12"

"Amaryllis and Paper White"

hand colored linoleum print - 9"x12"

It is just wonderful to have time to work in my studio today and I look forward to more of it in the days ahead.... 

A Spring Floral Print

It's been a busy summer with not much studio time.  We've had a great vacation on the Cape, a wonderful visit from our son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren, lots of work on the house and normal, fun, summer activities.
Here is a spring flower print, perhaps March....  I think the little bee in looks suspiciously like "Flying Piglet" and that entertains me!

"Daffodil and Crocus"

linoleum print - 9"x12"

"Daffodil and Crocus"

hand colored linoleum print - 9"x12"

"Trillium and Bloodroot"

Two weeks ago I was sitting in my chair in the garden contemplating--an assignment given to me at Shambhala as part of my "Wisdom in Everyday Life" class.  "Find a meaningful place outdoors and sit and contemplate there for ten to twenty minutes every day."  During that week, each day was different in the garden.  The birds sang, the sun shone (or didn't), the hawks soared around high above, the little brook burbled along.
And as the week went on, the bloodroot came and went and the trillium came and stayed.  Beautifully.  Not often have I just sat.  No weeding,  No drawing. Just contemplating.  I highly recommend it, because I fell in love with the trillium and bloodroot during those contemplations, and they became my latest prints....

"Trillium and Bloodroot"

9" x 12" - linoleum print

"Trillium and Bloodroot"

9" x 12" - hand colored linoleum print

I discovered that wild flowers are more about the leaves and less about the flowers.  The wild trillium leaves feel like they could fly and the quiet bloodroot leaves are like little fans of joy.

Cyclamen and Snow Drop

Just finished are the latest prints in the flower series.  "Cyclamen and Snow Drop" will be January in the calendar.  Here is the black and white original....

"Cyclamen and Snow Drop"

linoleum print - 9" x 12"

And the hand colored version....

"Cyclamen and Snow Drop"

hand colored linoleum print - 9" x 12"

The cyclamen plant itself will grace our dining room table now that its work in the studio is complete.

"Daisy and Balloon Flower"

Today, I put the finishing touches on the latest in my floral print series, "Daisy and Balloon Flower".  Now that it is complete, it reminds me a bit of "Foxglove and Black Eyed Susan" which I created last fall and which is one of my favorites.  Here is the finished print...

"Daisy and Balloon Flower"

linoleum print - 9" x 12"

I discovered that balloon flowers come in many colors including pink, blue, white and purple.  I thought about coloring a sunset sky of golds and pinks but decided to stick with shades and tints of blue in the sky and use pink balloon flowers to contrast with it.  Here it is...

"Daily and Balloon Flower"

hand colored linoleum print - 9" x 12"

I hope to enter three of these hand colored prints in Chandler Gallery's Area Artist Show in May.

"Tulip and Pussy Willow"

Here is the latest in the flower print series, finished this week.  First, the black and white version...

"Tulip and Pussy Willow"

linoleum print - 9" x 12"

And then, the color print...

"Tulip and Pussy Willow"

hand colored linoleum print - 9" x 12"

It is lovely and meditational mixing and blending the Prismacolors to get the shades and tints just the way they fit together best.   

I am rounding for home now with 7 prints in the series of 12 completed for next year's calendar.  Spring and summer months are much easier than fall and winter months.  So I still have to do January, February, October and November.  But June is underway!

Finished "Poinsettia and Berry"

This morning I finished hand coloring the latest in the floral print series and here it is....

"Poinsettia and Berry"

hand colored linoleum print - 9" x 12"

I may go in and darken the background a bit more, but basically I am pleased with the finished product....

Stargazer Lily and Morning Glory

It's been a busy and stressful several weeks looking for and finding our new house-to-be!  We are excited to be moving in January to Woodstock where we will be close to friends and stores and I will be able to move my studio to our house.   It has been hard to carve out time to make art and it will be very welcome to be settled in our new place in a couple of months....
Today is a wet, cold, gray November morning and so it is somehow even more pleasant than usual to work on floral prints.   They bring back memories of summer and warmth and color. 
This first print is black and white....

"Stargazer Lily and Morning Glory"

9"x12" - linoleum print

The hand colored print is finished as well....

"Stargazer Lily and Morning Glory"

9"x12" - hand colored linoleum print

I now have four completed prints for the calendar I would like to publish next year.   Each one attaches to a month--and lily and morning glory are definitely some time in the summer!

"Iris and Forsythia" complete

This afternoon I sat out on the deck on this beautiful late summer day and finished adding color to the linoleum print I've been working on and sharing with you.  Here's the way it looked last time as a black and white print....

                                                                 

And here is the finished product....

Iris and Forsythia

hand colored linoleum print - 9" x 12"

I think the color really brings the flowers to life.  I had forgotten how waxy and blendable Prismacolor colored pencils are but they allowed me to play back and forth with colors and values almost as if I were painting.  Completing this piece is motivational to me in continuing with the series.

Printing an Edition

I have finished cutting the printing plate I talked about last week and have printed "Iris and Forsythia".  It's always exciting to see what that first print will look like because despite lots of planning, it's always a bit of a surprise....

Partially cut soft cut printing plate

In order to print, I gather up my materials and head to the kitchen to be near the sink and to use the counter to spread out my work.  

Inking the printing plate

I roll out the black Speedball water soluble block printing ink with a 4 inch wide soft brayer, making sure that there is an even coat on the whole surface of the linoleum.  It's easy to see where the ink is because it is shiny and black.  Some of the cut areas pick up ink too and I like the value and textures the lines create.  I have to be careful NOT to get any blobs of  ink on the brayer or they will fill in the incised areas on the plate.

The inked plate with tape for centering the print on the paper

Next, I move the printing plate over to where I have measured out rough masking tape guidelines for the printing plate and paper so that the prints will be consistently centered.  In this case, I don't have to worry about being too careful.  If I were using a multiple number of plates or doing a reduction print where I would print the same plate several times, I would have to construct a more elaborate registration box.

Rubbing the print

When the paper is centered on the plate, I use a wooden spoon to carefully rub the back of the paper to make sure all areas of the plate have printed.  Here, you can just make out the ink beginning to soak into the paper.  I usually peek underneath to make sure it looks good before I pull the print off the plate.

"Iris and Forsythia"
9" x 12" • linoleum print

And here it is, the first finished print, called the "Artist Proof".  It is meant to be a test print and if I am pleased with it and it needs no more cutting, it becomes the standard for the edition.  I want each of the prints to be as exactly the same as possible and I might discard any that do not meet this standard.  But, in this case, I'm pretty pleased.  I do think that if I had treated both ferns as I did the one on the right, the print would be more balanced in terms of black areas.  When I add color this print after it is dry I will be able to compensate for this if I choose to do so.

I pulled 13 prints today and after printing 6 of them I had to take time out to wash and dry the plate since it had gotten pretty scummy.  I intend to print some more later.  The prints need to dry completely and that can take several days in humid weather.   Then, when there's no chance of smudging, I will have the fun of hand coloring one using colored pencils....

In-process Soft Cut Linoleum Print

For the past several weeks I've been working on the linoleum prints I mentioned way back in March.  In fact, I spent last Friday night at Tip Top Open Studios cutting away on my soft cut linoleum and visiting with Larissa from across the hall.
The first step in making a print is making drawings, in this case, pencil sketches of flowers.  It's a good time of year to be doing this!  I have many small drawings--pansies, forsythia, iris, day lilies, clover, black eyed susans, daisies, many un-named wild flowers I've found on our morning walks.  Plus lots of sketches that just don't want to work.
For this print, I chose forsythia, iris and ferns to play with in making a design....

Flower pencil sketches

After the drawings are chosen, the next step is creating a pleasing composition for the print.  This means tracing the sketches with a some tweaking here and there.   For example, some sections of the sketches may be repeated for emphasis.  I try to balance what will be cut out of the block to leave the paper white and what will be left to hold the ink and print black.  I want to have some black, some white and some textured gray.  I often add leaves, vines, stems, etc. to fill in empty areas.... 

Final design on tracing paper

The final design for the print is transferred to the soft cut block in pencil and then Sharpie marker to clearly mark the places that will and will not be cut. 

Partially cut soft cut block

The printing plate above is almost finished.  Hopefully you can see the marks of the linoleum cutter in the background.  These will be important when the plate is printed, adding texture to the negative space.  Next week?  Hopefully the finished product!

Poppy and Sunflower Linoleum Prints

For a change of pace, I am going back to an old love, printmaking.  The two prints here were made awhile ago and my thought is to create a series of floral linoleum prints and maybe turn them into a calendar.

"Poppy and Sunflower"

9" x 12" - lino print

"Poppy and Sunflower"

9" x 12" - hand colored lino print

This second print is hand colored with Prismacolors.  Wouldn't it be fun to use the calendar as a coloring book?  If the prints for each month were in black and white, everyone could do their own hand colored versions.