Linocut in Progress: Out of the blue.... and back again!

 Okay, then! Progress is happening, but this week it feels a little bit like that "one step forward, two steps back" sort of situation. But not really. Well, maybe. You can decide.

I decided that it was time to warm up/gray down the overall tone of the piece for Step 5, so a did a bunch of carving and rolled up a rather peculiar blended ink combo of gray to a sort of brown(ish).

Reduction linocut in progress: Step 5 rollup

I felt okay about the result.... at first.

Step 5 - printed

Yes, I want that warmer bit in the lower left of the image, and yes, I wanted to introduce some grayer blue. But after I sat with this for a while (and took up some more carving), I realized that it was a little too much brown too soon. Time to drag it back into the blue realm.

Step 6 - rollup

And yeah... that seems REALLY blue. But I have to remind you (and perhaps myself) that digital cameras don't play well with blues. They especially tend to make everything too contrasty! I struggled so much to take a photo of the print at this stage that I broke down and made a quick scan of it. Well, sort of quick. The piece is too large for my scanner, so I scanned it in pieces and stitched it together. But the ink was still a bit tacky, so I didn't go too crazy about getting it settled snug on the scanner bed. This is better than the camera view, but not perfect. 

Oh, wait! First I have to point out the cute little bird-shaped mask on the inked block. Because this is NOT a bluebird or even a blue bird. 

Step 6 printed

As I said... not a great scan, but better than a phone photo in terms of color and value. (That bright blue in the upper right is from light glare, and the dark blue vertical line in the left third is because of where I pieced the scans together.) 

So, yeah. I think it's going okay. A good amount of material needs to come out around the bird now, and then I can start working into the warmer, darker colors. I've been avoiding detail on the bird.... I'm a little afraid of it... but the reckoning will come soon. A few people who have seen the piece at this stage have identified the species already. Can you?

Linocut in Progress: The plot thickens. Or something.

It's been a rough week here, and I've been coping the only way I know how: Stress eating. (Bad.) And spending time in the studio. (Good.) And listening to a lot of Poirot audiobooks read by David Suchet while I work. Because he's the best. (Also good.)

Mint chocolate chip milkshakes aside (because for some reason I only crave ice cream when the weather gets cold), there are plenty of challenges to sort out with the current linocut in progress. I've picked a subject matter that is familiar (yes, of course there's water and a bird in it), but both the bird species and the expression of the water are new to me. Luckily I'm not worrying too much about the bird just yet. But oh, this water! It's giving me palpitations.

Step 3 wasn't too bad. Not a lot of carving, and a basic blue to print. No biggie.

Reduction linocut in progress: Step 3 rollup

See? It did create an interesting (and not unexpected) additional color where it overlapped some of the previously masked areas. Not much to help identify what's going on yet, though.

Step 3, printed

But now the complex carving part begins. The water here is pooling and overlapping in all sorts of directions, creating some fun patterns, but making it a challenge to decide what to carve and how to simplify. (Simplify, she says! Ha.)

Step 4, carving

Unfortunately there's no photo of the Step 4 rollup.... it was a medium gray-blue that took a few tries to mix, and I'm still not sure I got it right. But here's the result of the print pass:

Step 4, printed

See what I mean? That's some complicated water going on, that is. But, hey! You can see our avian hero now. Sort of.  A shadow of its self-to-be. 

For now it's back to more complex carving. Wish me luck... 

Linocut in Progress: Oh, look. It starts with blue. Again.

 If I had a nickel for every time I started a new linocut with a light blue, I'd have.... a lot of nickels. So let's drop another one in the jar and see what's up this time, shall we?

Reduction linocut in progress, Step 1 ink roll-up

That's a weird collection of scribbly carved lines, isn't it? I might be embarking on another one of those "it seemed like a good idea at the time" images, but here we go. 

Step 1 printed

Not much to see here, although readers/followers who know me well will probably have a good guess about the subject matter already.

But let's throw a wrench in that right away. I need to add some bits of warmer color in here, and I want to do it before too much more blue goes down. (There will be a LOT of blue in this image.) I can't possibly hope to contain it in the miniscule areas I have in mind, but I can at least keep this warm color from running completely amok by using a mask.

Creating some masks: trace and trace again

It's been a while since I've explained masking, so let's walk through it now. It's a multi-step process that begins with a sheet of clear acetate. I place the acetate over my lino block and trace the shapes in which I want to contain this warm color. I have been known to cut extremely fussy masks in the past, but I don't have the patience for that at the moment.

After I make the acetate pattern, I trace those shapes onto plain newsprint. 

Cutting the masks

By keeping the shapes fairly simple I am able to cut through several sheets of newsprint at a time without things sliding around too much. This saves time and patience. Which I think I have already mentioned I am a bit lacking in at the moment.

Masks cut, I can turn my attention to rolling up some ink again. Here's a warm light rust color. 

Step 2 rollup

You can see that I didn't roll the color across the entire block. No need, since the color is only going to print through the masked areas, anyway.

Here's the mask in place on the inked block:

Mask in place, ready to print

Important caveat here! You will notice that my newsprint sheet is not as large as the entire print block. This is good from a saving paper point of view, HOWEVER. It only works to use a short sheet when the already-printed ink color(s) are dry. If the previously-printed ink is at all damp, the newsprint will strip some of it off the prints. This can be a good thing in some instances, and a bad thing in others. In this case, if my already-printed blue was still damp I would end up with a harsh line 2/3 of the way down the print, with lighter blue on top and darker on the bottom. Not what I want! But the blue was quite dry already, so no problem.

Step 2 printed

Weird-looking, huh? I am either very clever or I've already made a mess. Only time (and a few more ink layers) will tell.

Opening this weekend! SAGA 89th Annual Members Exhibition

In the Shallows
reduction linocut © Sherrie York
12" x 12" - Edition of 20

If you are in New York City this weekend, why not head out to the beautiful galleries at Governors Island for the Society of American Graphic Artists' 89th Annual Members Exhibition, featuring over 150 hand pulled prints by brilliant SAGA printmakers from across the country. (Including In the Shallows, by... me!)

The opening reception will be held on Saturday, October 26, 3 - 5 pm at The Arts Center at Governors Island, next to the ferry landing. The Trust for Governors Island operates year-round ferry service to Governors Island.

Ferries will also run from Brooklyn, this weekend only. There may be delays and more visitors riding the ferry due to the annual harvest festival on October 26 and 27; please plan your visit accordingly.

SAGA's exhibition is free and open to the public from October 22 to November 3, Thursday to Sunday from 9 am to 6 pm or by appointment.

Linocut in Progress: Wait. Did I really finish in fewer than 10 steps?

Carrying on with the snowy linocut in progress. I do feel like I'm tempting fate just a tiny bit by imagining fresh snowfall, but here in Maine we should still be several weeks away from such things. (Although it rained here all day yesterday and I broke down and lit the wood stove for the first time this season, just to clear the chilly damp.)

After the greens-on-top-blue-across-the-bottom of Step 4, I cleared all the remaining material from the lower two thirds of the block. So satisfying to do so... and of course it means I'm now working with only a very small portion of the block. It should all go fairly quickly now...

So let's roll up a sort of middle-value green and print Step 5.

Reduction linocut in progress: Step 5 rollup

Step 5 printed

Okay! Feeling pretty good about that, although it's really too much green. I think we can remove everything from the block now that should remain green and concentrate on the trunks and branches.  The ink rollup for Step 6 was a gray brown.

Step 6 printed

Ugh. This is a terrible photo... so sorry! Apparently it's the only one I took at this stage, and I was working at night. I tried to adjust the photo a bit but only made it worse, so you'll have to use your imagination. The brown didn't read completely brown, but it wasn't this green. (And the snow was not purple.)

I was feeling good about the suggestion of a sunny gap in the upper right of the image, but wanted to emphasize that by bringing some of the tree trunks visually forward while also keeping them in shadow. First, however, I thought I should lighten the nearest ones just a smidge, so they could show more detail when the darks were added.

Step 7 rollup

Step 7 printed

Yes, okay... this photo has a bit too much contrast, but it's better than the previous one! You can see that the lightened trunks aren't really light. But they are light-er, which will hopefully allow for some more details in those closest trees, to help them feel even closer to us.

Step 8 rollup

Back to a darker brown to bring out some details and move the cluster of trees forward.

Step 8 printed

Another nighttime photo... Too contrasty, and now radically skewed because I was trying to avoid shadows from the overhead light. I have mentioned I'm not a photographer, right? 

However.... we are super close to finished here. I think a small cluster of the closest trees needs to get hit with one more dark, and maybe that will be it. Really? In fewer than ten passes? Are we sure this is my work?

Step 9 rollup

Only those two right-most trees received ink here. (The middle brownish-looking ones are just stained from previous color passes.) 

And, voila! All done. (And this one is a proper scan with good contrast and no skew!)

"Stillness," reduction linocut, edition of 18, 10" x 8"
©Sherrie York

This new linocut and more than two dozen other pieces are headed west for the opening of my solo exhibition at Blue Sage Center for the Arts in Paonia, Colorado. Show opens October 25 and runs through December 19. Do check it out of you're in the neighborhood!

Linocut in Progress: An early snow.... at least on paper

 Alrighty, then! Things have been happening in the studio! It's definitely autumn.... my favorite season of the year, and one in which I find it much easier to get things done. Summer is way too hot and humid... my brain and the paper both turn to mush. 

Of course it's getting cool enough now that lino is getting a bit trickier to carve. But never fear! A heating pad set on low underneath my carving surface will overcome that excuse-in-waiting. 

I've got a solo exhibition coming up back in Colorado at the end of this month, and I wanted to get "just one more" new little piece together for it. An 8 x 10 snow scene seemed like just the thing. 

I jumped into it so fast that I just plain forgot to take any photos of the early ink rollups, but they were pretty straightforward, so I think you can follow along just fine!

Step 1: A light blue, top to bottom. Easy peasy.

Reduction linocut in progress: Step 1 printed

Nothing much to see here.... let's carry on with Step 2. This one got a little fancier, but only a little. I printed a blended roll that went from gray at the top of the image to blue at the bottom. Like this:

Step 2 printed

And then, just for good measure, I did it again.

Step 3 printed

One of the things I enjoy about making snow scenes is that they resolve into something interesting fairly quickly. I mean.. honestly... there was a time when I would have just thrown one dark value on to this and called it a day. But those days? Long gone, my friends. I can't help myself.

By Step 4 I remembered that I should be taking photos of the ink rollup, especially since I decided to do something a bit funky. I could have removed all of the material in the snowy foreground, and indeed that was the original plan. But I decided I wanted just one more bit of subtle contrast in the very bottom of the image... and of course it was time to tackle the background trees. So... I took all the lino out of the middle and inked it like this:

Step 4 rollup

Tricky, eh? That's another blue along the bottom, but then a light-to-mid-green blend in the top that went from one side of the image to the other. 

Step 4 printed

It all looks a bit clunky now, but trust me! I have a cunning plan. Sort of. I'm going to try to suggest a bit of a sunny patch in the upper right. Stay tuned to see if I manage to pull it off.

Upcoming Exhibitions!

I've got another new piece underway, although I'm not doing a great job of documentation. I'll put something together eventually, but in the meantime....hey! There are some shows underway and coming up soon!

Birds in Art

The flagship exhibition of the Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin is the highlight of every year. I'm delighted that "A Certain Light" was selected for the show and will subsequently be accessioned into the museum's permanent collection. Birds in Art opened September 1 and continues through December 1.

"A Certain Light," reduction linocut © Sherrie York

Society of Animal Artists

The SAA's 64th juried annual members exhibition, Art and the Animal, opened September 1 at the Sioux City Public Museum, Iowa. The show continues through November 30. And... hmmm... look what's on the cover of the exhibition catalog. (Catalogs can be ordered online at the SAA website.)

Society of American Graphic Artists

SAGA's 89th Annual Members Exhibition will run October 22 to November 3 at the Arts Center on Governors Island, New York. 

"In the Shallows," reduction linocut © Sherrie York

Also.... I've a solo exhibition coming up at Blue Sage Center for the Arts in Paonia, Colorado, opening at the end of October. More details on this soon!

Linocut in Progress: When "simple" things go cattywampus

 Cattywampus, in case you didn't know, is a technical printmaking term. It can be used to refer to registration problems, but in my studio it's just a catch-all phrase for the entire middle section of most image creation. As in, "now it all goes cattywampus."

Case in point:

Reduction linocut in progress: Step 8 rollup

In my previous post I had the audacity to suggest that I had a sort of plan (shocking!) for these tree trunks... that rolling some white ink over the top of existing color could suggest reflected light. We'll see now, won't we? 

You might note that it's not strictly white that's rolled up here... it's white with a skosh (another technical printmaking term) of purple in it. Because: complimentary color theory. Also, the color isn't rolled everywhere, as this white-over-color business is all about the tree trunks.

Step 8 printed

Hm. Sort of. It's not really the effect I am going for yet, but never fear! I honestly didn't expect it to be quite right yet. I just wanted to prevent everything from going too much darker at this point. 

So now... what's next?

Step 9 rollup

Wait, what? Yep. It's official. Sherrie has lost her marbles here. I'm sure there was some sort of logical reason for me to jump back in to this rather alarming color.... but at the moment what I was thinking eludes me. 

Step 9 rollup

Ha! Just kidding. I knew it all along. Look at that lovely, toned-down-but-too-dark, reflective-looking color in the main tree trunks. Don't mind that bright blue in the branches. I'll do... something.... about it. Later. 

Step 10 rollup

How about another layer of almost-white?

Step 10 printed

Oh, ye of little faith! (Why yes, I am looking at myself, too!) We can still pull this off, yes? 

Let's do a lot of carving in the meantime, and then start detailing these trunks....

Step 11 rollup

At this point I apparently lost track of a step, at least where photography was concerned. Here's Step 11 printed:

Step 11 printed

But there was a Step 12... more trunk/branch details and another pass of brownish gray that I didn't record except for this photo:

Steps 11 and 12 side-by-side

Getting close now, and I was finally starting to feel like I might pull the whole thing off despite myself. There's hardly anything left on the block at this point, so not much more fussing around I could do, anyway!

Step 13 rollup

And the final image, at last! 

"Golden," reduction linocut, 10" x 8"
Edition of 20, ©Sherrie York

Whew! Got there in the end. Another "simple" image of "a few yellows and some blues in the tree trunks" finally finished. (Note: insert eyeroll emoji here.)

So what's next? I think I'm moving on in the seasons and going to tackle a small snow scene. I've got a solo exhibition coming up in October and need to expand my inventory of smaller work, so I'll be sticking with this 8x10 format, or thereabouts!

Linocut in Process: So much yellow!

If you've been following Brush and Baren for any length of time you know how often "simple" images turn into complicated productions in linocut. 

Let's just call that previous sentence Ominous Foreshadowing and move along, shall we?

Color pass #4! This image, if you hadn't already guessed, is of backlit, glowy aspen trees. Lots of light above and a bit of shadow below. Easy enough to suggest with a blended roll of a sort of pumpkiny yellow to a burnt-sweet-potato orange.

Reduction linocut in progress: Step 4 rollup

As usual, the color seemed quite dark on the block, but printed over lighter, brighter yellows it perked right up.

Step 4 printed

Full disclosure: I'm not sure what I was thinking with this next step. Brighten the upper leaf shapes and darken the shadowy bottom, apparently. 

But, yes. There was some masking involved. Because believe it or not, I sort of have a plan. Well, not a plan, really. But an idea that I hope is going to work. 

The bark of aspen trees is white, but in shadowed light they take on lot of other reflected color. I'm going to try to suggest this by rolling straight white ink over the main tree trunks, but not just yet. And while I want some color under the white, I don't want THIS much color. So... masking.

Step 5 rollup

As expected, the yellow ink didn't do much to change the upper leaves... but you can see it has done a little. and the shadowy lower portion of the image is showing more contrast. 

Step 5 printed

But not quite enough! After more carving I again rolled some darker brown in the lower portion of the image, blended with a brighter orange in the upper 3/4 of the block. Subtle color shifts for the leaves, more contrast below.

Step 6 rollup

Not a great photo for this step... but you get the idea.  

Step 6 printed

After this step the prints were hanging to dry for a couple of days while I ran around taking care of other tasks. When I came back to them I decided I needed (of course) "just one more dark" in the lower portion of the image.

Step 7 rollup

And more masking....

Step 7 mask

And, finally, printed. 

Step 7 printed

Okay. That seems okay. Really. Okay. Kind of. I think. Time to move on. 

To a layer of... white? If I were a nail biter, I'd start doing so now.