Japanese Woodcuts

I was signed up for a Japanese woodblock class with Andrew Lorish but it got cancelled because of Covid.  I was thrilled when a new date was set for this summer and it got cancelled too because Andrew got Covid.  Several weeks ago the class was announced for this weekend and I think I'm the first person to sign up.  I'm so out of shape.  I really needed something to kickstart me.

The class was held in the Studio 6000 in Sisters Oregon, just a half hour north of Bend.  Much of the equipment was from Bend Art Center which closed about four years ago due to financial woes.  That was a sad day.  A half dozen of my friends from previous classes were also there so it was a bit of reunion too.

Ian says I "spread out" when I'm working but this was worse than normal.  I wanted to carve a second block but only had 30 minutes to do it in.  I worked like a mad woman and made a huge mess with the shavings everywhere.

Andrew rolled out plates of transparent cyan, magenta and yellow.  We used Caligo ink with lots of extender, about five-to-one extender to ink. We inked our plates and printed our cut-to-size Hosho paper with a barren.  He had us print one direction then do a 180 turn and repeat the process with either the same color or different to see how it worked.  These are the first prints finished.  We had four sheets to print and three hours.  We had to work fast.

And some more.

And these are mine.  I like the block I carved in 30 minutes the best.  I printed with just two colors, and l'm not sure I like the prints with three. You have to click for big to see how the colors worked together, just yellow and cyan.

I came home energized and ready to do some more carving.  I have a couple of wood blocks left before I have to order more and I have a head full of ideas.  This is just what the doctor ordered, something to look forward to on the long gray days of winter.

And More Print Making

I had to carve the rest of the block here at the house.  I've got it on a piece of non-slip rug backing to keep it from sliding around while I'm using those very sharp tools.

I kept in mind that this is a class exercise and didn't beat myself up too much about the carving.  I only had a couple of hours yesterday afternoon and a couple more this morning.

I was working like a madwoman trying to carve out as much of the background material as time would allow.  I learned a lot about my tools through this exercise and really appreciated the .12 mm u-gouge that I splurged on.

Pat had me first print on the sepia prints that I had made last Monday evening.  I makes me think of music somehow.

And then for my record she had me print just the block in black ink.

These were the two prints combining watercolor and the inked block.  Actually, it's not water color - it's acrylic.  I am not a painter and simply couldn't get the hang of watercolor.  I misregistered the print on the right which left a space of white across the top and left side.

I brought it home with me to mix up some more acrylics and fill in those gaps.  It has a South American feel to me.  I weave a lot of towels using the colors of Fiesta Ware and without even thinking about it, chose those same colors for this print.  Tomorrow is the class critique, the second lecture and the next class exercise.  I hope it's as much fun and this one was!

Falling Down the Rabbit Hole

I loved the woodcuts class so much that I jumped at the chance to take an introduction to monotype class offered by Julie again, this time on three successive Monday nights.  I've been interested in monotypes every since I saw some of Richard Diebenkorn's at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  Monotype differs from Monoprint in that only one print can be made from a prepared plate.  Julie is instructing on how to apply the first coat of ink to the plexiglass plate.

I inked the entire plate in black and then experimented with different implements and spatulas to see what effect they would make.

I liked the effect I got by using a sideways stroke with a spatula so extended it until I had a cityscape.

Here they are, hanging to dry.

I liked the effect I got by scraping the ink off with the spatula so used it to make flowers.

I liked the ghost print I got in woodcuts and had one more piece of paper so ran the plate a second time. I really liked the unexpected and really cool effect from the wrinkled felt pad on the press.  You'll see it if you click for big.  We are printing on wet paper here where we did the woodcuts with dry paper.

There were three other students in the class and this is their work.  This coming Monday we're going to be print using layers of ink and found items like feathers and leaves.

This is the piece that I submitted to the members-only Holiday show next month.  It's the same way I feel about entering weaving into the Fair - it gives me ownership of the event.  I sat the studio yesterday from 3:00-7:00.  Dawn came in about 5:30 to get ready for her OSU class and was terribly agitated.  Two students were expelled from her son's middle school on Wednesday and on Thursday two more were expelled and six were suspended - for taunting the Latino students, making fun of them and telling to go back to where they belonged!  The news covered it today, with the teachers and administration saying that it would NOT be tolerated.  It's only a couple of days since Americans elected a bully to the White House and it's already starting in the schools.  

The good news of the evening was that my piece is one of the 20 that the juror selected.  I titled it Saturday Night because it's the excitement of the weekend when you're young, going out on a date, dancing, meeting new friends. The show is titled Red and you're supposed to complete the statement "Red is......."  I said "Red is what you paint the town!"

We took it in to be framed before the Veterans Day Parade today.  Most of the members take their work to Denise and I learned the hard way this morning that in the future, I need to take a piece in and get an estimate of the cost so I can include it in the price.  If this sells my profit will be $6.00! 

I'm pretty excited that my first piece to show is in there getting framed along with the pieces from the legitimate artists.  I think I'm the only student submission.

Another Hobby?!!

I took a woodcut class over the weekend at A6, a local printmaking gallery.  This is the fruit of my labor on Saturday, my sketch on graph paper, my carved block and my first print.

This is Julie Winter, our instructor, no relation to Joe Winter the potter.  We used this press to emboss our images.  The student woodcut is there in the gig and Julie is getting ready to add printing paper.

We hung our prints on this magnet board as we finished them.  It's a green studio so everything has to be environmentally sensitive.  My experience years ago was with oil-based inks which were beyond messy and difficult to clean up.  I found these soy-based oils to be a dream by contrast.

The other four students in the class have prior experience and art degrees.  I felt like a poser when Lisa sitting on my right whipped this out from a sketch she spontaneously did of the display area of the studio.

This is mine in contrast.

MaryJane on my left really fought with her print so these three were the only ones completed and printed on Saturday.

Jim, a graphic artist, took his home to complete and printed it on Sunday.  The idea was to complete and print our first block on Saturday and then to carve two complementary blocks and print them on Sunday. 

These were the steps that Sue's prints took.  The images are bottom to top.  (Sorry - my laptop has lost it's cursor so I'm managing with touch screen which I've never done before.)  She carved a block for red and a block for green but when she printed them together they became brown.  We weavers know what it feels like to accidentally cross complementary colors.  Brown!

This was my second block when I stopped to eat lunch on Sunday.  I'm so glad I took a pad of graph paper or I would have been lost.  I decided since I'd done diagonals on my first block that I'd do circular shapes on my second one.  I outlined the circles with my water bottle.  I think that's where the pattern started - I reached for a drink of water.

This is the results of my three blocks.  The top print is my first one and then because Julie stayed an extra hour after class, I ran my prints again but reversed the original black block which is the bottom image.  It really changes things.  I held up my graph paper to the light as I was planning my two blocks and my plan held up.  I'm glad I stayed the extra hour even though I was beat because it was a good lesson on orientation, something Julie brought up earlier in our class.

I only own one brayer so was thoroughly entertained by this collection drying by the sink.  I think I'm hooked.  I'm lucky to have a print-making friend in Reno who is fielding my questions.  I've ordered a catalog from McClains, a printmaking supplier right here in Portland.  

I'm not replacing weaving but I am supplementing it as a hobby.  I'm no longer able to weave for hours on end - bummer!  Weaving does pay its own way which is a big plus in a hobby, that and the love of it. I can't explore printmaking any further until after this weekend though.  It's our guild's first annual holiday sale - someone needs to tag and price all my stuff.