I picked up a pair of relief prints reciently from an antique shop and was hoping that I could identify the artist who created them but at this point I haven’t even figured out the letters that make up the signature. I guess I need to give up my dream of being a hand writing expert, if that were my dream, which it isn’t.
If you think you might know who’s signature it is I would love to hear from you , just send me a comment.
I wanted to show how little is required to do relief printing. In this photo is everything that is required; A block of material to carve, paper to print on, ink to print with, a hard surface (glass in this case) to roll out your ink on, a rubber roller and something to force contact between block and paper. I am using a bamboo barren but a wooden spoon can be used as well. And of course something to carve with. It is a very accessible art form, maybe you did it as a child cutting shapes into potatoes and using them as stamps. Art or craft it’s irrelevant if you enjoy creating something.
Here I’ve done a proof to see if there is anything that needs refining. I changed my mind mid way through creating this block, dropping the idea of a colour gradient back ground and just leaving the individual cuts visible. This clearly isn’t a lesson in how to print but I hope that seeing the simplicity of relief printing is encouragement if it’s something you’ve thought of doing.
I went to the Whatcom museum and art gallery to see the work of a Washington state artist, Elizabeth Colborne (1885-1948) , who produced beautiful wood block prints and paintings. Photography isn’t allowed at the gallery but I did purchase the gallery guide which has some great reproductions of her work. It was an exceptionally interesting show for me because some of the images are from working proofs and really do a great job of showing her method. The show has been on since June but ends soon (Sept. 21, 2011), it certainly has inspired me to make some more prints.
