Fieldwork Friday: Flashback

In 2025 I was delighted to be awarded a place in the Maine Master Naturalist Program student cohort. It's not an easy gig to get; the course is only taught in one or two locations in the state each year, and those locations change. One of the two 2025 courses was given in Falmouth, about 90ish minutes away and the closest the program ever gets to me.

The MMNP involves 10 months of intense study, with a new topic (or two or three) introduced every class meeting. Insects, wildflowers, winter tree ID, birds, skulls, tracks, reptiles, geology... It was a LOT. But learning is fun, and learning alongside other nature geeks even moreso. AAAAAAND  learning alongside other nature geeks while also being obliged to keep a nature journal is the best kind of fun there is. 

Each month we had homework related to the current topics, and a lot of it was recorded in our journals. We also had ongoing projects: a study site that we visited at least one hour each month, ditto an "adopted" tree. 

The program was coming to an end at this time last year... but I was tickled to pick up my journal and find entries from a year ago this week. These two pages are also a good representation of the variety of observations we recorded each month. 

Click to embiggen!

Study Site: Nash Pond sits in the mainland portion of Audubon's Todd Wildlife Sanctuary in Bremen, Maine. The 30-acre property was once a farm, with Nash Pond serving as irrigation holding. I chose it as my study site partly because I knew I'd be there often throughout the year (the dock at the bottom of the hill is the crossing point to Hog Island and the Audubon camp, where I coordinate some programs), and partly because it's a beautiful spot. And I wanted frogs and turtles in my study area! I ended up with a lot of tadpole drama... a big hatch, then loss of water, and then an invasion by hungry young turtles!

Study Tree: This Black Cherry is a cluster of young-ish trees in my yard, leaning to one side because of encroachment by branches of a maple. This poor tree suffered a lot during the year... bugs and fungus and getting crushed by falling limbs from the aforementioned maple. It seemed to fare a little better this year, but I admit I didn't keep close tabs in the way I did last year.

New Topic: Fungi! One of our September assignments was to find, identify, and record a certain number of fungi species. We'd had a dry summer, so this was a bit challenging, but eventually I found everything I needed.

In the future I'll share some more current pages with you, and maybe a few more flashbacks as the season warrants. I doubt that every Friday will be a Fieldwork Friday, but I'm sure they will pop up from time to time. 

Linocut in Progress: Theatrical Cut

Director's Cut: The movie the way the Director actually wanted it, but the studio said no.

Extended Cut: Really the thing I ALWAYS want. The Director's Cut, plus extra scenes, plus all the BTS (Behind the Scenes) documentaries. And sometimes even the commentaries. I love to hear and watch clever and creative people working together to make something wonderful.

Theatrical Cut: The thing we got instead.

You see where I'm going with this, right? You're about to get a Theatrical Cut, incomplete storylines and all. Sorry about that.

I have struggled to get any work done in the studio for the last 4 or 5 months, and when I did manage to carve lino or roll out ink, I didn't do a thorough job of documenting the process. Posting photos of work in progress felt like posting pictures of a meal or something... but less "Instagrammable." It's all been done before! BOR-ing. 

But here we are. I promised myself that Brush and Baren would see at least a little more action than it has for the last 8 months, and at the moment this is what I have. I'll do better in future.

Hey! That's ink on a block of lino! What's happening here?

But look! Here's some ink! On a block! Ready to print! 

Hm. Actually I think this rollup was for the second, or even third pass at this small image. This seems to be the first in-progress photo I took, though.

Reduction linocut in progress: Step... um... Three? Four?

I worked on this piece back in July, and my memory is fuzzy, but I think at this point there are three ink passes in place. A "peachy" one and two values of ochre. Hard to tell, but I think that's right. (Nope. See below.)

This is a small piece, just 5x7 inches. We had a stupidly hot and humid July this year, and I couldn't bear working on anything larger. But I wanted a couple of new, small things for the local gallery season and a 5x7 felt like something I could manage without disintegrating into a pile of sweaty goo. (TMI? Probably.)

Let's see... what do I have next? There isn't another photo of an ink rollup for the entire process... so we'll just have to do a little sleuthing and see what we can figure out from bad photos of the color stages.

Linocut in progress: Step four?

With a bit of squinting, and tossing about of mental files in the dim, dark recesses of my brain, I now think this might be the fifth color pass. I think the very first pass was a solid rectangle of pale rusty-peachy. No white in this image at all. 

1) Pale rusty-peachy rectangle

2) Mid-value rusty-peachy (These are technical color names, I'll have you know.)

3) Yellowy ochre

4) Ochrey ochre

5) Transparent gray which turned greenish when it covered the ochrey bits. As planned. 100%.

Linocut in progress: Now we're on six!

6) Another gray, a bit more opaque and a bit darker and a bit cooler. (Again, these are very specific and technical descriptions of color. Because I said so.)

Subject matter seems clear at this point, yes? Some rocks and some rock weed. A common view at low tide in Maine.

Linocut in progress: Step 7

7) A darker, bluer gray.

And then I am reminded of this old cartoon (frequently mis-attributed to Gary Larson of Far Side fame, but actually done by a guy named Sidney Harris):

8) and 9) Although in this case it's "be more explicit in steps 8 and 9." Because two more gray passes happened here... not one. 

Intertidal Tapestry, reduction linocut, 5" x 7", Edition of 25

And that's it! A little something for the Underfoot series, although I just noticed that I haven't actually made a page for it on my website yet. Better get that done!

But, hey! When was the last time you saw me get away with finishing a print in fewer than 10 passes? 

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.

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.

Linocut in Progress: Getting ahead of the season?

When I was in high school (about a million years ago) my first "real" job was working in a retail clothing store. I remember being surprised/not surprised to unpack new inventory and find we were going to start hanging winter coats on the racks in July. It was 95 degrees outside and I was wrestling fleece, down, and (not always fake in those days) fur. 

Which all to say that you might be surprised/not surprised that I have decided to work on a strictly autumn scene for the current linocut in progress. Maine is in the throes of steamy green summer right now, but I am ready to think about my favorite time of the year... with crisper, drier air and a bit more color variety in the trees.

Reduction linocut in progress: Step 1 rollup

There's not going to be much in this image that needs to stay the white of the paper, so only a few cuts were required before I was rolling up a yummy blended yellow-to-peach first color pass.

Step 1 printed

And whaddaya know? I'm also working in a vertical format. What? That doesn't seem to happen very often. 

No time to debate the whys and wherefores of verticality. We have lino to carve!

Step 2 rollup

And, wheeeeee! Some brighter yellow and a more intense peachy color. Let's gooooo!

Step 2 printed

Well, would you look at that? I think we can already tell there might be a tree or two (or twenty) in this image. At this point I started to get mildly concerned about a lot of confusing color shapes that need to inhabit the lower third of the image... but I successfully put my imagined fingers in my mental ears (because my real fingers were rolling ink, of course!) and avoided making any decisions. Let's put some more orange on now instead!

Step 3 rollup

Yep. That is definitely orange. Is it too much? Maybe... maybe not.....

Step 3 printed

It definitely seems like a lot of orange, but I refuse to panic just yet. I might do so on the NEXT step, however, since I need to jump in and adjust the color of the tree trunks. These are aspen trees, so their trunks are white. But they are also in the shade, with all of the color coming from backlight... so they are more of a middling purple-gray. 

It's a color that will be tricky to achieve over all these warm tones, but I did NOT want to cut a ridiculously complicated mask to isolate all the trunks. I'm hoping that a long-ago experience in a similar situation will rescue me from myself once again. 

Yep, it's time to cross our fingers and do a little dance for the gods of Opaque White! They'll never let us go back to white-white, but I'm hoping they'll give us a useful base tone from which we can build our new trunk color. 

Stay tuned!