Society of Animal Artists 54th Annual Exhibition

Opening this weekend at The Wildlife Experience in Denver: The 54th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Animal Artists (of which a certain printmaker you know is a Signature member).

Coot du Jour puts in a command appearance, along with 125 other works by some of the world's most accomplished wildlife artists. It's really a show worth checking out if you're in the neighborhood. Exhibition runs through October 22 at The Wildlife Experience, then a portion of it (still to be determined) will spend a year on national tour.

Linocut in Progress: Recovery effort underway!

Alrighty then. Time to try to sort out a solution to my too-dark-too-soon problem with the linocut in progress.

Inking mask cut from acetate.

I wanted to try spot-inking a lighter color in the area of this wildflower's bloom, so the first order of business was to cut a mask. In this case I'm using matte mylar because 1) the clear mylar I usually use has gone on walkabout (read: I don't seem to have put it away where it belongs and I can't find it) and 2) the thinner sheet of acetate that I tried to use as the mask tore the first time I rolled ink across it. Oops.

Ink rolled over the mask.

Here, of course, is the mask with the ink rolled up. The ink is a peachy color with lots of white... opaque enough to cover the darker orange already on the print and to provide a lighter base for subsequent colors.

Ink up with mask removed. Oops. Messy.

Here is the block inked up and mask removed. There's a sort of "ghosty" bit of ink all around the shape, which is from the first failed attempt with the mask that tore. I wiped off the block, but not quite well enough. After I pulled a test print I cleaned the block more thoroughly and started again.

Paintbrush linocut: Step 5

And here's the result. The "ghosty" bits don't bother me much because more color will be going into the background. The overall shape isn't particularly crisp, but that's not a problem, either, because subsequent colors will be applied from carved shapes on the block, not shapes printed through a mask. (Does that make sense?)

Seems like I should be able to go forward from here... as soon as I figure out what the next step will be!

Linocut in Progress: But what KIND of progress?

Clearly I've lost a little of my winging-it mojo in the last few weeks. My tendency to jump in to a reduction linocut with only moderate planning has already gotten me in to trouble but, hey! Let's just call it a "learning experience" and see what happens.

Step 2: This is where I went wrong. Yep. On the SECOND step. There's some lovely red-orange to go in this piece and I should have started with that instead of the greens. It would have been easy enough to make gray-greens by layering them over red. Pulling a bright red back out of this (especially after Step 3) is going to be a challenge. But I was thinking about value and not color when I started and that meant greens first.

Step 2: You probably won't be surprised if I tell you the subject is plant life.

Step 3: Still looks like plants, eh?

Step 3: I need some tiny bits of a chartreuse-y green in the upper part of this image and the lower part will be tangles of grasses and leaves, so a blended roll seemed like a good idea. At this point I've also realized that I've backed myself into a color corner, so I'm hoping a yellow-dominated green will help when it comes time to pull a red-orange shape out of here.

Step 4: Okaaaaayyyy. Now what?

Step 4: The color is swinging back around to where I need it in the top half of the image, but now the value is WAY too dark. We will now enjoy a longish pause while I sort out how to remedy the problem. I think I'm going to cut a mask and print a lighter color where I need to regain control... but my chance for success is not certain.

This weekend I commented to a friend that it's been a while since I've documented a major crash-and-burn on this blog and I'm hoping that this is not the image that breaks that streak. Stay tuned... creative rubberneckers might get a good show.

Secrets and Rectangles

Okay then...

Secret things have been happening in the studio this week, in anticipation of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum's Project Postcard event during this year's Birds in Art opening. This will be the fifth year in which BIA artists have contributed 4" x 6" images which are offered to reception-goers for a flat $50 each. The trick is that the works are hung all together in a "secret" room and buyers can't see them ahead of time. Ticket holders enter the room one at a time and have something like 2 minutes in which to make their choice. Works are NOT identified on the front... all artist signatures are on the back... so it's a bit of a game.

Proceeds from Project Postcard are used by the museum to purchase works from the Birds in Art exhibition for their permanent collection... a win-win-win! I was honored to have my linocut, Ripples, added to the Woodson collection via Project Postcard in 2011... and I'm always delighted to share that joy with my fellow artists by contributing to the event.

SO. I made two little single-color, hand-painted (what?) linocuts for this year's event. Of course I am sworn to secrecy, but I saw another artist share her "postcard" image with the help of some Photoshop distortion... so here's a sneak almost-peek for you:

Kind of fun... I've actually never played with the "twirl" filter in Pshop... there's definitely some interesting lino potential there...

With that little task finished I can finally turn my attention to something that I can share with you... although at the moment it's pretty seriously uninteresting. Even with "artistic" photo composition.

Yep. Gray rectangle. Again. I'm honestly not sure where this is going. I know what the subject is, but I haven't yet resolved the background in my mind. We'll just have to see what happens.

Yay!

Can't give you much more information than this, I'm afraid, as it's a secret project for the upcoming Birds in Art exhibition, but hey. At least it's lino. About time, wouldn't you say?

The absurd pace of the past month has started to slow, although today I'm off to deliver work for the Society of Animal Artists' 54th annual "Art and the Animal" exhibition. Might even get to take a day or two off to go camping this weekend... although the decision on that is still pending. I'm twitchy as heck to get back in to the studio... now that all the extraneous stuff that I've been hauling back and forth since June is moved out of the way and I can find my way to the print bench. A little time making lino crumbs before bed last night sure felt good.

Join me this weekend at the Crested Butte Arts Festival, Crested Butte, Colorado!

If it's time for the Crested Butte Arts Festival, it must mean I made it home from Maine. (Which I did, in the wee hours of yesterday morning.)

Please join me in CB this weekend for art, music, food, and luscious scenery. (I hear the wildflowers are still going gangbusters over there.) Booth 65, towards the west end of Elk Avenue in downtown Crested Butte.

Educators Week at Hog Island Audubon Camp in Maine

Next in line in the "catch up" posts is this past week's great adventure at Hog Island's Educators Week.

I've been privileged to be an instructor on the island for five years now. It's one of my favorite places, staffed by some of my favorite people, and visited by some of the most dedicated educators you'll ever meet.

I take very few photos during camp... our schedules are chock-a-block and I just never think of it. But here are a few highlights from some of my sessions, at least, in no particular order:

Arrival: We had a full house this week... about 60 educator/campers.
Everyone's just starting to make friends and find their feet the first night.

How can you not get comfortable with a view like this?

Making journals in the Queen Mary lab on the only rainy morning of the week.

Chatting and making found object weavings in the shade on our all-day island hike.

View of camp from the narrows.

Summiting on the cross-island trail. Elevation? 98 feet. ;-)

Intertidal exploration

Internet sensations, the Hog Island osprey nest (with three soon-to-fledge youngsters)
can be watched online at explore.org. There are puffin and guillemot cams to
be found there, too. Just sayin'.

Workshop participant Sue takes time out to make a journal entry.

The most spectacular naturalist I know, Ted Gilman (left), celebrated
his 40th anniversary with Audubon during camp. Yay, Ted. Love you.

Yep. It's pretty hard to take island life.

Lots of other things happened, too, of course... including a boat tour to Eastern Egg Rock to see puffins, a pond exploration, bird workshops, photography workshops, astronomy, geology, nocturnal marine creatures... but I don't have photos! (And did I mention the lobster feast on the last night of camp?) You'll just have to join us next year and take your own.

If you are an educator or know an educator, check out the program website. Registration for 2015 will probably begin some time in October, and scholarship opportunities and applications will ramp up about then, too. Maine in the summer... what's not to love?

"Wind-Wave-Wing" at the Project Puffin Visitor Center

I'm still in Maine (!!!), but headed home soon. I've got a day off today so thought it might be time to catch up a little.

Okay. I had a day off yesterday, too... but I went sailing instead of blog posting. I hope you understand. :-)

On Wednesday, July 16, we enjoyed a little reception and I gave a short presentation about reduction printing in conjunction with my show, "Wind-Wave-Wing" at the Project Puffin Visitor Center in Rockland, Maine.

As an added bonus, I was delighted to have friends and colleagues Jim Coe, Cindy House, Karen Scharff, Bob Petty, and Chuck Remington attending from (get this) New York, New Hampshire, Montana, and Washington DC. Bob and I have worked together on projects for the National Audubon Society for probably ten years and this was the first time we met in person! Such a delight.

The show continues through the end of October, so if you're in the area, please stop on by!

Addendum: Forgot to mention that on Saturday, July 19th I gave a half-day beginning linocut workshop in conjunction with the PPVC and the Farnsworth Museum. Thanks so much to all of my workshop participants and to the staff of both the museum and the PPVC. It was a fun day!

Linos at the Ladies....

Twenty-four hours until departure for Maine... and The Mother of All To-do Lists* is hanging tough. Actually, I've just about reached the limit of what can be done before I go... the rest will have to wait until I return.. in August!

Meanwhile, a dozen linocuts are now gracing the walls of the excellent Laughing Ladies Restaurant here in Salida. Fantastic food AND nice art? How can you go wrong? Show hangs through September 3rd. Tell Jeff and Margy I sent you. ;-)

And last night I received an email that said "bring more art," since linos are winging their way to new homes from the Project Puffin Visitor Center show! Yikes. My suitcase is already packed to overflowing!

Added to that quandary... one of the pieces that needs to be replaced is a tiny (4 x 6 inches) black-and-white image... the complete edition of which I didn't have time to pull before the work was due in Rockland in May. Oops. So guess what I did today?

Yep. I pulled some prints. Three cheers for cobalt drier! It's nasty stuff, and I try to avoid it, but sometimes you just have to resort to chemistry to get the job done. Should be ready to trim up and add to the suitcase in the morning. And, hey! That item wasn't even on The Mother List.

I'm traveling with the full gamut of technology this trip, so will hopefully be able to do a post or two from the coast. That is if I can drag myself away from the water long enough!

(*The Mother of All To-do Lists: Life got so complicated this summer that my exhibition-and-workshop-related to-do list became a spreadsheet. Seventy-five actions on the list since June 1... and that's only the prep items. Actually teaching the workshops and attending the exhibitions is a whole 'nuther list entirely. Wrong, I say. Just. Wrong.)

"Wind-Wave-Wing" at the Project Puffin Visitor Center

I returned home this afternoon from a couple of (great) workshops (with fantastic participants, thank you all!) at the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival... And I'm out the door and headed east again in a few short days. It's July, so it must be Maine!

First up... I'll be presenting a short program about reduction linocuts at the reception for my exhibition "Wind-Wave-Wing" at the Project Puffin Visitor Center in Rockland, Maine. Next Wednesday, July 16, 5:00-7:00pm. If you're in the neighborhood I'd love to see you!

Saturday, July 19, I'll be offering a half-day introductory linocut workshop in conjunction with both the PPVC and the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland. As of today there were only two spots left... registration information is here.

And of course the annual Educator's Week at Hog Island Audubon Camp begins Sunday, July 20. Whew! Gonna be a great and busy time.

"Gaining Ground," reduction linocut, 9" x 6"
Currently on exhibit at the Project Puffin Visitor Center

Fieldwork Friday on Sunday, or, How I Spent my July 4th (Yes, there's a sketch in here.)

Tomorrow I am off to lead workshops at the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival, and three days after I return I head to Maine for two weeks. (Three days after I get back from Maine I leave again, but that's August, so we're ignoring it for now.)

Prep for all these workshops and travel is at a fever pitch, so when a friend suggested we "go do something" for the holiday I was a bit reluctant. But once we decided the "something" would be a visit to the Orient Mine to witness the nightly egress of 250,000 free-tailed bats... well... What prep? Do I have prep to do?

View to the southwest from the trail to the Orient Mine

The mine is in the San Luis Valley, the trailhead just over an hour from Salida. We were in and out of rain showers during our ascent to "the bat cave," but the cool temps made the steepish climb a lot easier!

The air smelled of sage and the scrub oaks were thick with towhees. Why the heck did I even hesitate about getting out here?

Almost there!

Just at dusk the sun made a crazy-intense appearance below the cloud layer. A long streak of golden glow sliced across the valley. Spectacular.

Can you say "future linocut"?

But then the bats!

We'd been sitting outside the mine for probably 45 minutes, watching naught but swallows and swifts and then suddenly the sky was full of bats. From time to time the flow over our heads and down the hillside was so intense and fast that it was like a summer rainshower... but of bats instead of raindrops.

I didn't get much for photos... nothing that would suggest the feeling of the spectacle, but...

This one's emiggenable so you can see the bats a wee bit better. Not much.

Best shot of the bunch.

I did, of course, say this was a Fieldwork Friday post... and yes, I did make a little sketch of the "Glory Hole," the main route the bats take out of the collapsed mine.

It was full dark by the time we made it back to the truck... but the adventure wasn't over even then! On the drive out via rocky backroad we flushed a couple of common nighthawks and probably six or seven common poorwills... the red reflections of their eyes in our headlights alerting us to their presence long before we saw the birds themselves.

No fireworks, parades, or loud parties for us... but I think we had the best July 4th ever.