Reconsidering my sketches, in particular the interior view made with ball pen, I realized that the hatching somehow worked against the three-dimensionality of the object, for example the wooden parts of the armchair. Oftentimes the hatching is too rough and disturbs the visual effect rather than supporting the composition. So there’s definitely scope for improvement.

When I first looked at Rembrandt’s etchings, I was a bit irritated because their tones were so subtle and no linework was visible. I thought this may have been a consequence of the printmaking technique or due to low resolution images that did not reproduce well enough to make the hatching appear. But then I found several prints where the hatching lines were clearly visible. Sometimes, I found the hatching quite chaotic and almost as disturbing as my own, for example “The Entombment” (left). In other prints, the hatching was extremely subtle and in perfect harmony with the image, as in the portrait of Jan Lutma (right).

I learned that Rembrandt was the printmaker who used tinted plates to create tonal effects in addition to hatching and cross hatching. The Negresse print is an excellent example for this. The overall effect is completely different to earlier, pure etchings like the portrait of the artist’s mother.

Now I don’t think I could lean on the technique for linoprinting, but it might be inspirational for etching later on. The aspect to take away for now is try to become more sensitive to how I create tone when using a linear drawing medium. I recently made a little tonal study in my sketchbook with Jet black pencil. It was done with hatching and cross hatching. The technique worked well for the middle and dark tones, but not for the light tones. When I try to create light tones with a single hatching layer, the lines are very prominent. Maybe it would have worked better with a mixture of hard, medium and soft pencil, with hard pencils for cross-hatching the lighter tones.

References

Thematic essay with images at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rembp/hd_rembp.htm#thumbnails

Nevertheless I want to explore sculpture, so I decided to do it on my own, as time permits, to supplement my OCA studies. I’ve already learnt quite a lot how to approach an art topic that’s interesting, and I intend to loosely follow this one “the OCA way” by writing a blog, doing research on suggested artists, and using project prompts to develop a personal practice as well. I researched academic course syllabi online and found interesting project prompts which I’m going to use to get me started.

The first project I chose is to make a paper sculpture. The project was designed for beginners to sculpture and the only requirements are a minimum size (16 x 16 x 16 inches, which is about 40 cubic centimeters) and that the sculpture should have an interior and an exterior. The task was designed to get students working in 3-dimensions, and it was presented with some paper sculptures from various artists as inspirations.

Now one of these artist was Andreas Kocks (German, contemporary). I chose him for a closer look because I was quite impressed by the sculptures. The first images I saw were those of sculptures that resembled huge-sized splashes of black ink, cut out and mounted to form a three dimensional landscape on the wall. Similar sculptures were made as cut out shapes that were bent inwards or outwards, so they’d create shadows or highlights on the sculpture’s surface.

Now there’s no immediate connection between sculpture and printmaking in general or between these sculptures and the linocut printmaking technique specifically. But while looking at the sculptures, I did search for a connection or a way to translate the idea from sculpture into printmaking.

Monoprinting came to mind: If ink was splashed onto a printing plate and a print pulled from the surface, this would create a “splash print”, shaped by a chance effects in the same way as the original splash of the ink on the plate. By contrast, I could splash some ink on a linoplate and then cut around the splash shapes for a relief print. This print would have a completely different effect, probably a bit like “frozen water” and similar to water depictions in the linocuts by Ian Phillips.

It’s an interesting idea. I might take it up some time in the future.

Resources

Andreas Kocks, Paper sculptures http://pennstatesculpture.blogspot.com/2012/08/andreas-kocks-paper-project.html

Andreas Kocks artist website http://www.andreaskocks.com/index.html

The linocuts of Ian Phillips show similar qualities to what I liked in Anne Lewis’ linocuts. There’s a graphical cleanliness to them which I admire and that I’d like to achieve in my own works as well.

The dog on a carpet has a lovely fur texture, where brown shades look through the black overprint. Another lovely detail is the white on the paw and the light fur in the neck, where the paper comes through. The landscape to the right I like the tonal gradations within the turquoise/blue/black colour. Both prints open the standard image rectangle to an outline influence by the subject’s forms, which is a great compositional element that I’d like to try out in my own work as well.

These two depictions of water use a different technique which effectively conveys the character of the surface. The left shows the breaking up of waves at the shore, the right shows a quietly moving surface with its reflections. I wonder how the clean linework was achieved in the right print because I’m finding it very difficult to cut fine relief lines into linoleum.

Another interesting detail is the printmaker’s sign which also appears in the next two prints. It’s really a nice detail and I can imagine to develop something similar for my prints as well.

The waterfall print shows another different water subject, “moving water” this time. The depiction of water came up in my watercolour module and I really like how Ian Phillips treats this subjects and conveys the essence of the particular situation. I also like the texture and shapes of the bushes behind the large rocks. The dark purple colour in the linework that creates these bushes returns in the rocks and the darker background trees, and I think this is an important factor contributing to the coherence of the elements in the composition.

The last print I selected for a close look was shown in the section ‘studies’. I really wondered about the distinction between ‘studies’ and proper prints, and the place these studies have in the linocut reduction process. By the time there’s so much carved away that only the black elements of the ducks remain, a new plate must be started if a complete print is to be developed. But I love the lightness, transparency and unfinished, casual style of this linocut.

What can I learn from these prints?

After looking for an hour or so at all the prints presented on Ian Phillips’ website, I had a brief feeling of saturation, as if the prints, despite their admirable technique and execution, became somewhat predictable and less exciting. I checked back to my own multi-block print to compare whether there was the same feeling (after having looked so often at them before), but no. With some days distance and a fresh eye, I found that my messy technique had added something mysterious to the print that made them less immediate to grasp. They are not as clean and precise and maybe that’s what keeps me interested when looking at them. But it may also be a personal thing, simply because it was me who made them.

I’m more than aware how much I can learn by studying other artists’ prints and there are many aspects I adore in the prints by Ian Phillips. In addition to this, his website is extremely well structured and easy to navigate. He presents a tutorial on reduction linocut which contains helpful tips for the process. For example, he uses photoshop to enlarge his original drawings to the final print size, and creates the final drawing based on a printout of the enlarged version.

Another good tip was to use China Markers to transfer the drawing onto the linoleum plate. China Markers are wax-based pens that draw well on smooth surfaces like glass or porcelain, but they can also be used on paper, as underdrawings in watercolours (water-repellent), or for details in oil pastel drawings. Now for image transfer, Ian Phillips traces the right side of his drawing with the marker, then reverses the paper and re-traces the backside, which transfers the pigment from the underside drawing onto the linoleum. This sounds interesting and it might help me to get over the irritation from a variety of different marks on the lino. China markers are available in different colours so I could also try to differentiate between the colours I’m going to use for a print.

Other ideas for my own work

– Ink a plate with two or more colours to achieve a gradation, or ink the plate only partially. I think this technique was used for the ‘Honeybourne Evening’ print with the blue-gray colour on the hill area. This looks as if the ink had been applied fully in the uper half of the plate and was faded out in the lower half, so that more of the red colour comes through in the foreground

– It might also be interesting to combine multiblock printing with the reduction method, for example using two plates in a sequence of different colours and different elements of the subject printed interchangingly. That’s certainly too complicated for me now, but might be interesting to experiment with in the future.

– again the breaking up of plain rectangle image boundaries. I like it a lot how Ian Phillips has applied this in the ‘Howl’ and ‘Honeybourne Evening’ prints. There are more landscape prints where he uses the technique and it looks really interesting.

Resources

Artist website http://www.reliefprint.co.uk/index.html

Edward Bawden, English (1903 – 1989)

The Floral Hall, Covent Garden (1967)

This is a print with many intricate details and fine lines. I wouldn’t have tried to do something like this with linoleum because I wouldn’t be able to cut out these lines with such accuracy. I think it’s a very interesting composition and unusual, subtle choice of colour.

Zoom image at http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/prints-multiples/edward-bawden-the-floral-hall-covent-garden-5588069-details.aspx

Smithfield  (Meat Market) (1967) Lithograph, originated from a Linocut

“This print of Smithfield Meat Market was one of a series of six prints of London markets commissioned by Curwen Prints. The others were Billingsgate, Borough, Covent Garden (2) and Leadenhall. The prints were originated as linocuts which were then made into lithograph plates by Stanley Jones. The main edition was of seventy-five copies of each. In preparing material for the series, Bawden would travel down to London from Great Bardfield very early in the morning with the local butcher. Bawden’s long-term interest in the structural detail of large-span working buildings, evident in his depictions of railway station and other structures, is also expressed in these prints, juxtaposed against the human activity and the market produce.” [The Fry Art Gallery]

This print is actually a lithograph, not a linocut, which I realized only later. I think the black was not the best choice on top of the other paler colours, because it stands out too heavily and does not integrate well with the other image elements. A dark gray would probably have worked better.

For the use of colour, I see a similar method in treating figure, line and background as what I noticed in the linoprints by Anne Lewis in an earlier post (LINK). A particular colour sometimes is a line, sometimes is it used as a shape, and sometimes it’s the background to something else (negative space). These principles are used in the roof structure but also in the center for the people in the scene. The print is undated, but I’d locate it close to the tradition of German expressionism with its bold style.

Braintree Station (1960)

Another linocut with a mind-boggling amount of finely cut detail. The composition uses a central perspective which resembles ‘naive paintings’.

Road to Thaxted (1956)

This is the earliest print from those I selected, and looks like the least controlled composition in a positive way. The treatment of lines and shapes is somewhat looser than in the later compositions of architectural structures. Interesting is that there are several misalignments, maybe deliberate, which work extremely well, for example the blue of the man on the bicycle or the white in the flowers to the lower right. Also interesting the use of texture to create tonal values, for example under the bench with the milk bowls. This reminds me of the techniques used in etching.

Resources

Overview of works by Edward Bawden at the Fry Art Gallery website:  http://www.fryartgallery.org/the-collection/search-viewer/580/artist/6/Edward-Bawden-CBE-RA

Richard Bawden, English (born 1936)

Many subjects around the house: cats, interior views. I chose among the few outside views to make a comparison to prints by father Edward. But there were so few that I included other subjects as well. Unfortunately, I found no dates for the prints by Richard Bawden. Also, the reproduction images were in low resolution which makes it difficult to study technical details and learn from them.

Wivenhoe Waterfront, Linocut

From what I can see, a print with an enormous amount of eactly cut detail: The stone walls and houses with all the tiny brick linework, the planks of the boats, the texture on the water. All the linework for the boat’s sails. I could never do this and I wouldn’t want to in a relief technique, I think. I’m also surprised by the number of different colours in this print and wonder whether there was a separate plate for each colour or whether selective inking was used as well.

Seargent Pepper and Symphonic Rock Royal Albert Hall (White)

Another print with a huge amount of finely cut detail and geometrical patterns. The treatment of the blue light rays across the entire scene is interesting

Saltglaze Jugs, Linocut: I like this print for its subject

Daffodils, Linocut:

A print that has very few dark elements, which I find unusual for linocuts. The main element is the colourful striped tablecloth. The vase of flowers casts a shadow on the table surface which is nicely indicated by a light gray layer which mutes the underlying colours.

Resources

Selected Artworks at Bircham Gallery http://www.birchamgallery.co.uk/catalogue/artist/Richard:Bawden/
Selected prints at Art Angels Gallery: http://www.art-angels.co.uk/cat/richard-bawden
Linda Richardson presenting selected linocuts by Richard Bawden: http://www.lindarichardson.co.uk/index.php/a-z-artists/richard-bawden/linocuts

Concluding remarks

All in all, the prints by these two printmakers are “not my cup of tea”. While I do like them for the images and compositions, it’s not the style of printmaking I’m aiming for. The question ‘what can you learn from them’ is therefore difficult to answer. Things to take away might rather be in the vein of how to do things differently – I’d try to avoid making prints with such intricate, lace-like textures and instead would aim for a more generous  and reductive style.

I’m still undecided whether to have another go at the seaside view, but having done more research confirmed the suspicions I had regarding the need for more clarity in my designs. It may have been this issue that led me to select Anne Lewis and Peter Catherall for a closer look. Both artists specialize on linocut and their style is clean and graphical. I think this is the direction towards which I’d like to develop in future linocut work.

Anne Lewis, Wales (born 1962)

These linocuts were made using the reduction method, where a single plate is used and consecutively cut away over a series of impressions from lighter to darker colours. Anne Lewis explains the process nicely on her blog. I guess the method requires lots and lots of practice to develop the necessary feel for the right colours and how to cut. Lewis has a background in illustration. I guess it’s this kind of training that helps to “clean up” a drawing and make it a good source for a coloured linocut.

I’m just so impressed by the quality of her work – the wide view of her landscape compositions, with the paper white providing accentuated highlights. The prints show very effective colour contrasts.

There’s a particular Photoshop software filter, I think it’s called ‘Colour separation’, which does approximately what is needed to go from a complex real view to a simplified abstraction that will work as a multicolour linocut. I might experiment with that on my source photos to see how it looks like. It’s a bit of a two-sided coin though because I don’t want to reduce linocutting to a mere execution of a digitally prepared image. I think there’s more to a good linocut than just applying a technical procedure.

For now the one thing I know that this is the style I had vaguely in mind when talking about cleaning up my multiblock print of the seaside view: Simplify the shapes, try to obtain clarity and clean up fussy textures.

Storm approaching, Birling Gap (2014), 7 colour linocut, Edition of 20, 30cm x 20cm
Late September, Tenby Harbour (2013), 13 colour linocut, Edition of 20, 41.5cm x 29.5cm
Capel Carmel, Conwy (undated), 5 colour linocut (3 blocks), Edition of 20, 17.5 x 18cm
Towards Trearddur from Porth y Corwgl (2013), 12 colour linocut, Edition of 15, 29 x 15cm

Anne Lewis focuses on landscape, but there are also other subjects like animals and plants. I’m including two examples which I found particularly interesting. The ‘White Hellebore’ is very interesting because of the shapes that go outside of the image square, this adds to the livelyness of the print. It is such an accomplished work, I’m struck by the beauty… There is so much variety in the use of colour and line. For example, the black acts in multiple ways

– there are black lines on white or coloured grounds
– there are black shapes into which lines are carved and the colour shows through
– there are areas where the black is just a background, not a particular shape (negative space)

The narcissi, by contrast, are somewhat more difficult to read, and I think it is because not enough dark contrast was used to separate the flower from its background. It’s nevertheless a beautiful print and I found it very interesting to see a preparatory sketch as well.

White hellebore (undated), 3 colour linocut, Edition of 16, 13cm x 15cm (to petal and leaf tips)
Narcissi (undated), 5 colour linocut, Edition of 16, 28 x 8cm

Anne Lewis Artist website http://www.annlewis.co.uk
Anne Lewis at Martin Tinney Gallery http://www.artwales.com/artists-detail-mtg-en.php?artistID=71
Reference article by Nick Morley http://linocutboy.com/ann-lewis-linocut-artist/

Paul Catherall, England (born 1967)

Paul Catherall is a London based artist. City structures are a major subject in his prints. I wouldn’t have believed his prints were linocuts, I’d rather have thought their were screenprints. The style is even more extreme in its clarity and graphic approach. The artist stated

“It’s about a “quality that’s fairly abstract, where elements are missing and your eye does your work for you”, he says. “I’m exploring what to leave out rather than what to leave in, and getting the negative shapes to do the work.” [from an article at Creative Review website]

I think this is at the heart of what attracted me to these works. The abstract quality and the reduction to essential shapes is just stunning.

The architectural views of London are already great, but I was off my feet to see the prints of New York. Left: Empire State Building and Brooklyn Bridge. Right: The prints of high rises and other structures represent so much of what I see every day.

I’m quite sure that these works are based on photographs, because there are extreme perspective distortions which are typical for standard (zoom) lens cameras. By contrast, when drawing from a real view, the human eye and brain together automatically correct these distortions. It is of course possible that Catherall used a viewfinder for drawing which artificially imposes a little square on the scene and might stop the brain from “pulling the verticals straight”.

What I find most impressive and would like to adopt from these prints is the treatment of shadows to indicate the shape of the actual object.

Artist website (Flash animation) http://www.paulcatherall.com
2012 Linocut Exhibition http://www.designweek.co.uk/whats-on/paul-catherall-2012-linocuts/3034880.article
Selected works overview http://www.art-angels.co.uk/cat/paul-catherall
Paul Catherall Artist Details at the London Transport Museum http://www.ltmcollection.org/posters/artist/artist.html?IXartist=Paul+Catherall
Reference article by Nick Morley http://linocutboy.com/paul-catherall-linocuts-of-london/
Creative Review Exhibition Article: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/april/paul-catherall
Graphicine Article (large image reproductions) http://www.graphicine.com/?p=667

The visit to the CCP was a super nice experience. I received a very friendly welcome and was led around the exhibition and the printmaking studios by Paul DeRuvo, Printmaker at the center. Paul also let me watch him make a chine collé print for another artist’s edition, and showed me some of his own prints. Upstairs I met some artists who were working on their prints, discussing ideas among them. I just got a taste for what I’m missing heavily in my everyday life, where I’m working full-time in a totally unrelated IT job and pursue printmaking alone at home, guided via distance education.

The exhibition itself presented prints by Clare Romano and John Ross spanning their entire artist lives. There were many woodcuts and collagraphs and I spent quite some time looking at each from close and making notes in my sketchbook. I admired textures and other details that one cannot see when looking at prints online or as reproductions in books. I also took some photos of prints I found particularly interesting. It was a very inspiring day.

Prints from the exhibition

Unfortunately the prints were framed behind glass and the studio lights created lots of reflections, so I had to photograph at an angle and the image quality is mediocre. The pictures just serve as a reminder.

    
Clare Romano, Dalmatia (1969), Collagraph: I was interested in the heavily textured effects in this print. I imagined it might have been made using a heavy body paint laid out on a plate and then textured with a spatula. The print was probably made in layers: First the basic colours of red, brown and blue and then a black print from a textured plate with ink wiped off the surfaces so that it would remain only in the ridges. I don’t have enough background knowledge on collagraphs but it’s something I’d like to explore.

Clare Romano, Into the clefts (1960), Woodcut: This resonated with me because it reminded me of the topic ‘New York’, the big city that can get so overwhelming. While doing some preparative research for the visit, I had seen woodcuts of New York by Clare Romano and John Ross that had been made for a book about Manhattan Island. They were in a 1950-60s style and I had hoped to see some of the originals for that book in the exhibition. There weren’t any, but I was sensitized to the subject. What I like in this woodcut is the composition (left photo): When you walk through the streets of Manhattan, you can see a tiny bit of sky above high buildings and maybe a small vertical stripe between two high rises when you follow the street up to the horizon. It looks like an evening scene with neon lighting that becomes blurred as you move through the streets taking a cab or the bus (right photo, detail from center).

I started with the ‘New York’ subject in Part 1, making textured monotypes and experimental prints using masks, and think I will get back to this subject again.

     Clare Romano, East Side Structures (1952), Lithograph
Clare Romano, Along the Arno (1959), Woodcut

The lithograph was very similar to those I remembered from the Manhattan book: The colour choice of beige, brown and grey tones and the geometrical elements in the composition. The image is dominated by flat areas of colour and I guess this has to do with the litho technique. Within the colours there’s a subtle surface texture which I think results from the surface of the litho stone – and which works extremely well to convey the feel of the concrete buildings in that street view. Lithography apparently permits printing linear elements as well, which would be a pain to do with lino, never resulting in similarly clean surroundings. The overall effect with lino would be quite different, even if the same composition was used.

I love the woodcut print for its warm colours and the bold composition. Like the lithograph, this print is based on shape, not on texture. Interesting texture effects on the surfaces arise from light colours that were printed over darker colours. I just wonder whether the black lines were the result of a huge wooden plate where everything except the linear elements was cut away. I think I’d approach this differently and use a combination of woodcut relief with an intaglio method for the lines.

John Ross, Night Refinery (1964), Etching
John Ross, Harbor (1969), Etching

It is interesting to compare these etchings by John Ross with Clare Romano’s prints of built structures and see how the technique has an influence on the outcome. Although similar in colours, the overall impression of the etchings is very different from the woodcut and the lithograph. The Night Refinery etching seems to have been done on top of a brown coloured print on cream white paper. The white of the paper comes through in the round shapes which look like light bulbs in a nightly scene. There’s much greater emphasis on texture and line here, compared to lithograph and woodcut.

The Harbor etching is even more complicated. It might have been done in a single go from a plate that had etched lines and was then selectively inked with several different colours and only partially wiped clean. Similar effects might be obtained with a subtractive monotype technique, combined with backdrawing. I really like the subtlety of the colour effects here.

Canyons

Another subject that had been explored by both artists were landscape views of canyons. The four I selected were all collagraphs, using different materials for texturing the surfaces.

John Ross, Talus (1984), Collagraph
John Ross, Peak (1984), Collagraph
Clare Romano, Red Canyon (1983), Collagraph
Clare Romano, Silver Canyon (1984), Collagraph

Talus by John Ross and Red Canyon by Clare Romano used fabric to create texture, which can be seen from close. The other two collagraph plates were created differently, maybe some kind of gel or mass that could be manipulated with instruments. The Red Canyon seems to combine fabric and textured gel mass, whereas Talus builds on fabric alone.

In the meantime, I have completed my multiblock linoprint which features a landscape view with stones. It’s interesting to see how collagraph can be used to texture stone surfaces. It might be interesting to follow this up later, maybe combining the two techniques: Linocut for the definitions, collagraph for interesting textures. Not sure though whether linocut is at all compatible with a more impressionistic treatment of surfaces.

I have no idea how the multiple colours were printed. I remember that Paul DeRuvo mentioned the complexity of the process of inking these plates when he showed me around through the exhibition. Maybe a combination of selective inking with different colours and selective wiping plus several printed layers on top? I treated myself the printmaking book and also a book on collagraph, maybe I’ll be able to understand the process later on.

Resources

John Ross artist website: http://www.johnrossprintmaker.com/index.html
Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, CT: http://contemprints.org/
Paul DeRuvo artist website: http://paulderuvo.com

When I searched more specifically for Rayograms by Man Ray, I found that there was a difference in quality and approach. They looked clearer, more like the composition of an artist than experimentation with effects. I noticed strong black and white contrasts, but also how transparency and tonal effects were integrated.

I did this research before starting with actual work on Part 2 and had some difficulty relating it to my own artwork. But now after the first linocut composition I see the similarity in the strong black and white contrasts of linocuts and rayograms. It might be interesting to try compositions that take up these ides. This might mean to focus on the contour of an object. The surface texture might be indicated in the contour as well.

– left: Rayograph, 1922
– right: Rayograph; Comb, Straight razor blade, Needle and other forms (1922)

Resources

Images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/265487?=&imgNo=0&tabName=related-objects

Atta Kwami, Ghana (born 1956)

I found this artist when searching for linocuts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art website. They struck me because I’m not aware of having seen abstract linocuts before. I was also impressed by the vivid colours.

They’re very different from what I usually associate with linocut works, like German Expressionism/die Brücke with their graphical style and figurative subjects. By contrast, Atta Kwami’s linocuts breathe african tradition with a novel approach to the technique of linocuts. The prints strongle relate to the artist’s other works, like abstract colourful paintings and textile  It’s a very graphical style. What I can take home from these prints is the encouragement to explore abstraction using linocut.

Images from Metropolitan Museum of art http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/383727?rpp=30&pg=1&ft=linocut&pos=1

James Lesesne Wells, North America (1902-1993)

Wells was an African American artist, born and educated in the United States. The prints I chose are from the late artist, made in the 1970 to 1990s. Maybe due to my own mature age, I’d count this as contemporary, but they remind me more of the graphic style of the 1960s than of today’s contemporary art. I think the technique employed is traditional, but I find the treatment of the subjects very interesting. The shapes are broken up and irregular, objects have surface texture, the choice of colour is unusual.

It’s again an artist whose works go beyond what I knew as characteristic for linocuts. I was thinking that colour linoprints generally combine multiple cut blocks, all cut out to print parts of the subject in a distinctive colour, so that different colours sit next to each other and transparency and overprinting occurs. But these prints are different. The colours are separated by black. The technique looks as if a first impression was made from a plate inked with several colours, followed by a second impression in black from a cut linoplate. The black provides the holding structure for the composition.

The one woodcut (still life with flowers) included for comparison is made in a different approach, using more colours and less black.

Bus stop, Ghana (1972), a colour linocut. A colour woodprint from 1975 also exists.
Watusi Family (1988), colour linocut
Still life with violin (1987), woodcut
Yellow vase (1980), colour linocut

Overview of works: http://www.artnet.com/artists/james-lesesne-wells/past-auction-results
Artist biography: http://www.artnet.com/artists/james-lesesne-wells/biography
Images from http://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Bus-Stop–Ghana/E1DFAD4FDADD6BD6

Tracing down the influence of the researched artists on my own practice

I have done this research after the single colour linocut of the interior view. I felt that I should do more research but also wanted to do practical work, so decided to take a break and read ahead in the course materials and do further research in parallel. Peeking into assignment 2 requirements, I realized there was room to do more single colour linocuts before proceeding to project 7 (multi-block printing), so I went on to do another linocut.

After that I took the opportunity to visit an exhibition at the Center for Contemporary printmaking in Norwalk, CT, and enjoyed an afternoon at the seaside as well, which led to my subject for the coloured linocut in project 7. There was such a momentum that I did not get back to this research topic until after having finished the multiblock print.

With hindsight, there is no apparent influence of these artist onto subsequent works, but I’m glad I proceeded in the way I did because the additional practice now lets me see these prints with different eyes. I continue to find them unusual and interesting in approach, but they’re not the direction I’m aiming for with my linocut work.

Resources

Mentioned on FB on 26 September 2014: Center for Contemporary Printmaking, CT. Christopher Shore demonstrating the technique (Photo)

Google search

Painting on: Margaret Ryall. Tutorial http://margaretryall.blogspot.com/2009/08/paper-lithographygum-arabic-transfers.html

Printmaking101 introduction, referring to CCP, CT and Martha Oatway http://dcimprint.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/printmaking-101-paper-lithography/

Contemporary printmaker Martha Oatway (Washington Printmakers Gallery) -> Printing with textures http://washingtonprintmakers.com/martha-oatway-2/