More adventures in Linocut printing

I am continuing on in my attempt to learn about the linocut process and have done a multi color reduction print to see how the inks work over each other and how registration works (or in my case doesn't quite work).  The process is shown below with the first color printed in yellow, then the plate is further reduced by cutting away the areas to remain yellow and printing the next color (green).  I then cut away all the parts to stay green and tried several different colors printing the final versions to see how the colors reacted with each other.  I learned:

• I really need better inks.  I am using a beginners water based ink by speedball that didn't offer any transparent base to work with and was difficult to print as the series went on.
• I am going to need to be more precise and have more guides set down for the registration process in order to get a better alignment for the prints
• The new lino was much better and easier to cut than my previous test print, as it is probably newer than what I had on hand previously

I may or may not revisit this croton motif in the future but this learning print really was quite helpful in seeing the process work (and not work) in my studio.  It was also quite helpful in getting me to think in printmaking mode as opposed to painting mode when creating the starting image.  

 

Playing with linocut

I have started experimenting and trying to re-learn how to work with Linocut prints.  This is the first test of the materials and tools I have on hand to work with.  I am not sure the inks are all that good in quality and the lino was old and kind of crumbly but it is encouraging me to get another piece and see what else I can do with this medium.  

 

Gardens in Motion

Another in the series of garden abstractions from this time of isolation.   This one started from a thumbnail watercolor sketch and then took on a life of its own.

Swirl
16 x12 Oil on Canvas 

 

Birds in the Garden

This year we have had quite a few nests in the gardens and house eaves.  We watched as a pair of cardinals built a nest in the Buddha belly bamboo about 5 feet from our screen porch.  They hatched and fledged 3 chicks from the nest then moved on.  There was also a nest in the eaves just off the porch which was either sparrows or wrens, but we never got a real good look at them.  They also hatched and fledged some chicks from that nest.  The two nests are below, first one is the cardinal nest which included bits of plastic.  It contained small snail shells when we looked at it.  The other nest belonging to the sparrows (or wrens) is much more elaborate and deep.  It probably is 6 inches in and has a smaller opening.  All in all, along with squirrels nesting in the palm tree and camphor trees, it has been an abundant summer here in the garden.   

This painting of the cardinals give the feeling and fleeting appearances of those birds in the bamboo as they tended their young in the evenings.  

Cardinals Nesting in the Buddha Belly
24 x 16 Oil on Canvas on panel 

 

More in the Garden Series

At the pandemic isolation continues, I have spent a lot of time looking at and watching the visitors to my gardens.  The butterflies and birds this year seem to be enjoying themselves and the flowers have been keeping them around.  I am painting from the feeling of the gardens as they change from day to day and hour to hour.  

Mariposa
16 x 20 Oil on Canvas 

 

Night Storm

This has been hanging around for a few years waiting for me to finish it and for some reason the mood struck this week.  

Night Storm
24 x 18 Mixed Media 

Beach Bones on Talbot Island

Beach Bones
11 x 14 Oil on Canvas 

Fog Cover

●Fog Cover

40 x 30 Oil on Canvas 

Morning Mist Redux

Morning Mist on Egan's Creek
16 x 20 Oil on Canvas Panel

Sometimes you just have to keep painting on something until you get what you want.  The bottom left painting was the original of this work from a photo I snapped on a morning walk past Egan's creek.  I really wasn't fond of it so I painted over it and ended up with the bottom right painting.  Still not happy....

I scraped that off and continued on to the re-painting above.  This photo doesn't quiet capture the color in the sky and water as it was quite overcast when I took it, but I think I am finally done with this work.

 

Rain Garden

We are having daily afternoon and evening thunderstorms which transform the look of the gardens into a kind of veiled shimmery presence.  This image was perfect for exploring the possibilities of watercolor, ink, and acrylic paint on absorbent ground canvas panels.  The painting is finished with UVLS polymer varnish making it frameable without glass.  This process, from the making of the panels to the final varnishing has been a comforting way to create during this lockdown period.

Rain Garden
37 x 34 Mixed Media on Canvas Panel

Just because...

The Bowie Nebula
20 x 15 Watercolor and Acrylic on Canvas panel 

Still playing around...

Untitled
15 x 15 Watercolor on canvas board 

Beethoven's Nebula

Pure playtime on canvas board with absorbent ground.

Beethoven's Nebula
24 x 18 Mixed Media on Canvas Panel

High Key Painting

A group of artists I meet with have been doing an art challenge using a three deck card system with different directions for elements of painting that had to be incorporated in the work.  Each of us took one card from each deck and were required to follow the instructions on at least two of the cards to create a piece of work.  The cards I pulled loosely required me to (1) choose a color scheme, and (2) paint the work in a high key.  So... these two pieces are using a split complement color scheme in each and using a palette of only high key in those colors.  Painting high key was definitely a challenge for me but I finally liked what came out of the process and controlled my urge to add darker compositional elements. 

●Moonrise
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Mill Study
20 x 16 Oil on Canvas 

Series Done!

The final painting in the series for the artist of the month show (hopefully still happening in October) is done!  I painted twelve, 12 x 12 oil paintings for the show and this one below is number 12.  It is a loose memory work of the cranes at JaxPort.

●Port Cranes
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Off the easel

●Wind in the Canna Garden

30 x 30 oil on canvas

Experiments on Watercolor Canvas

I found a few 18 x 24 sheets of watercolor canvas in my studio and have been playing with them this week while avoiding the painting on my easel.....  These are watercolor/ink/acrylic/oil pastel on watercolor canvas.  They are sort of wrinkly still as I haven't mounted or stretched them yet.

●Fantasy Garden
24 x 18 Mixed media on watercolor canvas 

Storm Warning
24 x 18 Mixed Media on Watercolor Canvas 

Keeping busy in the Studio

Summer Storm
27 x 34 Watercolor and Acrylic on Arches Paper 

Spending a lot of time in the garden....

Geranium
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas

Upside down or sideways?

More in the industrial abstract series with a quandary.  I worked on this in multiple directions and now am conflicted about which way to show it.  I finally ruled out the other directions anyway...

Blue Industry (1)
30 x 30 Oil on Canvas 

Blue Industry (2)
30 x 30 Oil on Canvas

Still Using all the Colors...

Another 12 x 12 study of the local mill.  This got a lot more colorful than the original watercolor sketch.

•Mill Study
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Canna Dreams

Dreaming of adding some yellow cannas to the gardens....

Canna Dreams
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Garden Stars

I planted Nasturtium seeds last year about this time in a large clay pot.   They bloomed but quickly got  burnt out in the heat so I just cut them back and left them in.  They came back this fall and have been blooming and climbing like crazy so I just had to paint them before the summer heat gets them again. 

●Nasturtium Study
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Strolling Around Town

This is not the best photo as I was taking pictures and trying to keep an eye on the Skink that has taken up residence on the studio porch at the same time.....

●Wicked Good!
14 x 11 Oil on Canvas 

Jaxport

•Port Study
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Just for Fun

I was thinking of the line from the Jean Cocteau poem "On The Waves".....

●Springtime at the Bottom of the Sea
17 x 30 Watercolor and mixed media on Paper

Mill and Bridge Study

Fragments
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Cranes at JaxPort

Another 12 x 12 study of the cranes at JaxPort.  The wheel structures are cable reels in case you are wondering like I was...

JaxPort Study
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas

Top of the Trail

If you climb the entire trail at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument you will get this view looking down on the hoo-doos and over at the Sandia Mountains.  This is another of the 12 x 12 paintings for the series.  

●Top of the Trail
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Red Mill

●Red Mill
60  x 40 Oil on Canvas 

Winter work for a cold day

●Winter Dunes at Big Talbot
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks

I have a show in October as the artist of the month at the Island Art Association gallery.  The space is not large so I am working on a series of 12 x 12 canvases for that show (12 to the 3rd power).  Right now it is looking kind of bi-polar with half landscapes and half abstractions of the mills/bridges/ports.  

This is from my hike at Tent Rocks in New Mexico last fall.  And yes, the sky was really that blue!  This site is now a national monument so a lot more hikers than we remember before that designation, but still a breathtaking place (not just because of the climb...)

●Tent Rocks (Kasha-Katuwe)
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Hot Off the Press

Hand printed and tinted drypoint intaglio print, edition of 15, ready for shipping.  This is going to a print exchange at 9 in Hand Press.  

Queen of Needles
5" x 7" Drypoint print with hand coloring