Development of the etching series, "Mountain Byways"

I have returned from Zea Mays Print Studio in Florence, MA http://zeamaysprintmaking.com/ where I was hard at work on a three plate color etching, the first in a series being planned called "Mountain Byways" during a five day workshop conducted by Lousie Kohrman. http://www.louisekohrman.com/

Here is my first plate called the key plate.  A simple etched line image was developed and printed in black.  This printed image was then transferred to the two remaining  plates by printing the wet print onto de-greased copper plates using proper registration methods on the press bed.

After the image was transferred to the two plates, I developed one using a deep bite etching technique with the idea of inking up the relief with a hard roller.  The other plate was developed using aquatints for tonal values.  The key plate remained the same.

This image is the first color proof I pulled printing the three inked plates consecutively.  I reversed the order the three plates were developed by printing the aquatint plate first, the deep bite plate second and the key plate last.




The next day, I changed my ink palette to blues, reds and yellows (primary colors) An umber intaglio was used in the deep bite plate.  I also re-etched my deep bite plate for additional line development to the image's middle ground.  And on the aquatint plate, instead of a single color inking, I used a la poupe method to introduce a range of colors in selected areas.  Key plate was inked in blue intaglio.

I like this second color proof very much. So to document the printing process and colors used, I printed each plate separately.  These images would be used as a reference for future printings.

Eureka!  An Epiphany!  What I had printed was not only a record of the plate image but... also the image transfer from the previous printing.  In other words I have another unique image.  (Note: the aquatint plate had no transfer image because it is the first plate to print on a blank paper.)  This is the same technique used in transferring the key plate to the other plates. 

  

The first image is the key plate with transfers of deep bite and aquatint plates.

The second image is the deep bite plate with aquatint transfer (no key plate transfer).

*Something to think about...these two softer versions (ghost image with previous plate image transfer) could perhaps be printed as an edition as well.

Are you a Rusticator?

Late in the afternoon after painting at Grimes Cove in Boothbay, I arrived at Sprucewold Lodge located on the quiet side of Boothbay Harbor, Maine.  I had no interest in staying on the heavily commercial side of Boothbay.  My only lodging pleasure was to be deep in the spruce woods.  Besides, I was only a few minutes' drive from the wharfs and harbor for painting pleasure.  But if material needs arose, there was access to the bustling town via a sturdy pedestrian bridge which offers great views of the scenic and lobster boat packed harbor.

While staying at Sprucewold for two nights, I had experienced a Rusticator's get away.  Rusticator is a word which defines the summer urban tourist from Boston and NYC who between 1840 and 1920's traveled by train, boarded steamboats to sample a few weeks of rustic country life and a whiff of fresh air along coastal Maine.  The lodge, Sprucewold, built in the early 1920's is one of the last remaining Rusticator lodges east of the Mississippi.  Think of western US lodges built by the Great National Railroad in the early 1900's to entice tourists to the Rocky Mountains and away from traveling abroad to see the Great Alps of Europe.  Although Sprucewold is much, much smaller in scale of concept and design, it is alluring and relevant enough to want to re-live a bit of Maine's coastal history with a lodging reservation.

Many 19th century Victorians obtained their first sampling of the area's scenic beauty from attending the big cities exhibitions of paintings by the likes of Thomas Cole, Frederick Church, Fritz Henry Lane and other famed Hudson River Painters who painted along the Maine's coast especially Mt Desert, Cranberry Island, and Monhegan Island. 

Just as the Victorians brought along their butlers, maids, nannies to support their accustom urban way of life while at the same time enjoying the benefits of the ''rustic' life, I too was treated to a pot of coffee served on the porch each morning, a delicious cooked breakfast of my choosing (blueberry pancakes, yum!) as well as the availability of Wi-Fi, cell phone coverage, and 70" wide, hi-def television for watching the Red Sox battle the Miami Marlins in the evenings.  I also enjoyed being surrounded by rustic architectural features of hand-hewed beams and logs, white birch chandeliers, bent wood furnishings and a vast collection of antique games and other household bric-brac.

...and while sipping my morning coffee on the open porch each morning, I delighted in the sightings of a flock of wild turkeys foraging in the under-brush nearby.



CLYDE FARRIN'S HOUSE,corner of Lobster Cove Road and Atlantic

With the beautiful weather and scenic Boothbay at my call, I painted outdoors during the day and dined in the evening at the wharf eating freshly shucked oysters and boiled lobsters while enjoying the sun setting over the harbor from the quiet side of Boothbay.

HARBOR SUNSET from Boothbay Lobster Wharf

http://www.sprucewoldlodge.com/Pages/about_us.html for info regardng Sprucewold Lodge

A must read:
The Lobster Coast, Rusticators and the Struggle for a Forgotten Coast by Colin Woodard
  http://www.colinwoodard.com/lobstercoast.html

Cripple Cove, Gloucester

Yesterday, I traveled to Rocky Neck, Gloucester to do some painting.  I found an ideal spot called Cripple Cove along 127A well before Rocky Neck Art Colony.  I guess what attracted me first was PARKING!  I pulled in and took in the harbor views.  This public landing has a fenced in playground, free parking and beautiful views of the Gloucester Inner Harbor with docked fishing vessels and stacked lobster traps.

First I sketched very quickly three drawings in marker and soon found a composition I wanted to paint. I then snapped a few photos for future references. The chosen composition has strong verticals in the foreground representing the pilings (I liked how the pilings diminished in size as they moved from the shoreline); a strong diagonal line of the dock leading into the picture plane with two boats located on a horizontal band in center of panel with lots of 'noise' in the background represented by the groupings of work sheds and trees.

Because of the clear skies and bright sunshine, there was an abundance of color, color, color.
I couldn't help but paint those loud fluorescent  reds and orange buoys... oh, and throw in some cad yellow for the lobster traps.


A gal from Manchester stopped by and painted  with watercolors the same scene but without the pilings and dock in foreground.  Everyone who stopped by remarked on what a gorgeous day it was to be out and about.   Amen.

Picturesque Five Islands

For the long Memorial Day weekend, my husband, Ken, and I packed up our new Chevy Volt with food, gear, a Corgi, a Cockatiel and headed to mid-coast Maine to the island of Georgetown.   The Plein Air Painters of Maine were painting Saturday at the Five Islands wharf.  What a great excuse to get away to the great state of Maine for a long holiday weekend.

The small, charming fishing village, Five Islands, is known as "the prettiest harbor in Maine" and truly is a picturesque spot for painting, paddling and eating lobsters 'in the rough'.  The village's working wharf is used by the local lobstermen for selling their catch and baiting their traps.  In the distance across Sheepscot Bay, the Hendricks Head Lighthouse can be seen.  The local scenery was exceptional for out-door painting.  But... typical Maine weather greeted me and others upon our early morning arrival at the Five Islands wharf: the air was thick with fog.  A lovely gray palette was worked up for the occasion.

We stayed at Back River Bend http://www.backriverbend.com/cottages/index.html in a converted sail loft perched at treetop level.  The height of our one bedroom accommodation  afforded us panoramic views of the river and marshes as well as sounds of the boatyard below. In the loft, Ken, a radio fanatic, enjoyed tinkering with frequencies while I painted afar in the fields and on the wharfs of Georgetown.

My new print, 'String Around the Posies', displays black flowers in a color arrangement of individually inked cut-shaped linoleum.  The center linoleum design with the circular red string, black flowers and yellow background were printed using the reductive method of one block.

My printer's alchemy changed the petite, yellow daffodils into mysterious blacks and laid them on a field of yellow. Bright colors always sing out loudly when highlighted next to black.

Black flowers were favorites of the Victorian gardens. My favorites are the Black Hollyhock and the 'Queen of the Night' tulip.

Or maybe the print expresses a little Goth in me, representing the touches of darkness and shadows in the corner of the garden.

With an invitation to create an image for 13Forest Gallery's summer show, "Tag, (you're it)", the catalyst for the print's image came from the children's nursery rhyme (see below) and a table arrangement of dainty daffodils from my garden.

Ring around the rosies
Pocket full of posies
Achoo, Achoo
We all fall down.

Some researchers associate the poem's meaning back to the time of the Black Plague in Europe.

My print, 'String Around the Posies', is a play on words and color: in an edition of 8 on BFK paper.


Tag (You're It)
@ 13Forest Gallery, 167A Mass Ave, Arlington, MA
May 11 through August 31
http://13forest.com/index.shtml

HARBINGER print at the D'Amour Museum

My linoleum reduction print, 'Harbinger', is now on exhibit with other selected Zea Mays Print Studio prints at the Springfield, MA, D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts.  The print exhibit will be on view through October 25, 2012.
http://www.springfieldmuseums.org/the_museums/fine_arts/exhibits/view/216-conscious_impressions_green_printmaking_from_zea_mays_printmaking_studio

The print, 'Harbinger' was also selected by Jim Dine, juror for the  Boston Printmakers' National Print Biennial 2011 and was awarded the NYC Legion Paper Award.

Little steps toward saying a goodbye

This past week, I traveled via of a mail boat to stay on an ever so slowly sinking island.  The island is called Tangiers and was so named by Captain John Smith in 1608.  Located in the Chesapeake Bay, 12 miles out from Virginia. It is home to 525 or more people; a hardy breed of Virginians.

Good friends (Bob and Terry) of Annapolis joined my husband (Ken) and me for a week long vacation, to celebrate birthdays, savor southern island life and hospitality and to paint.  Gracious islanders acknowledged our presence by always waving hello as we passed each other while walking, cycling or riding along in the ubiquitous golf cart.  No cars are allowed on the island.  One on one conversation was always light and friendly with the people who spoke with an Elizabethan English dialect.

The island laborers are called watermen and their labor of love is catching the Atlantic blue crab or Callinectus sapiadus.  I prefer the more poetic Latin translation: beautiful swimmer, savory.  Please read the Pulitzer Prize winning book, "Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay" by William Warner http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Swimmers-Watermen-Crabs-Chesapeake/dp/0316923354 to learn more about this Chesapeake Bay heritage because the blue crab population is in decline as well as the watermen's revenue and their way of life.

Within the Tangier's landscape of modest settlements, marshes and crab shanties is a beautiful Sandy Beach which is connected to the southern part of the island; hook-shaped with a lagoon in the middle for bird watching pleasure.  Walking along the shoreline, I averted my eyes from looking too long upon the romancing teenagers hidden away in the dune grasses.  I'm guessing privacy is at a minimum on a small island.

Every morning Terry and I packed up the golf cart with our painting gear and headed out to find a painting site.  And everyday we donned our sun hats and painted in cool temps of 50 degrees and  a frisky breeze of 20 mph... perfect weather to paint beautiful marsh and island scenes.




Here's a link to our trip photos of Tangier Island, VA  http://www.flickr.com/photos/printmaker_who_paints_plein_air/sets/

 






                               Bon Painting!