Rome or Bust

This is the second print in the Getty Villa Museum series. This is a monotype of a Roman Bust printed in the same method as the previous post: monotype with black ink, with color tapped onto the plate.

At the Museum

This print was inspired by a recent trip to the Getty Villa museum. This was the original J. Paul Getty Museum. It was closed for renovation before the opening of the new Getty Center. The Villa now houses Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities. Really old stuff.

This is a monotype printed in black etching ink on Rives BFK paper. The color in the print was applied by dabbing or 'tapping' different colored inks onto the plate with fingertips. I've been printing the monotypes for a while now, usually just in black ink and coloring them afterwards. Applying the color to the plate before printing creates an entirely different look and definitely warrants further exploration/experimentation. Hail Caesar!

Taurus the bull

This one goes out to all my fellow Taureans out there. Its coming up fast on the zodiac calendar, so it seems appropriate. I am a taurus, very much so. My father always called me a bull in a china shop and I'm pretty damned stubborn. I don't know how much stock I put in the zodiac, but everything I read about taurus rings very true.

This is a linoleum print or linocut. A linocut is a relief print printed from an image carved into a piece or 'block' of linoleum. Linoleum removed from the surface creates the negative space; the remaining surface holds ink and creates the positive space.

The image size of this print is approx. 4 1/2" x 6" on a 6 1/2" x 9 1/2" piece of black Arches Cover paper. Available for sale here.

Nicolette

This is a collograph print of my printmaking pal Nicolette.
Available for sale here.


The print being pulled from the plate.



The rough sketch used to design the plate.

Bandit

From one of my favorites to another: Burt Reynolds, at the time the biggest box office star in the world, playing his most iconic role... the Bandit. I've always been a 'Smokey and the Bandit' fan. I saw it at just the right age as a child, and it made quite an impression. Unlike many tv shows and films I held dear as a child, it holds up quite well. This is a collograph printed with black etching ink and then watercolored. Below is the print before coloring.

Collographs are a simple yet surprisingly sophisticated printmaking technique. Layers of cut construction paper are glued to a piece of mat board and then sealed.


The plate is then inked and printed like an etching.


...I'm east bound and down

Matisse: the Man, the Monotype

This is the second print pulled on my new press, from a picture of Matisse looking so very french in his chapeau. It is appropriate, and perhaps inevitable that a portrait of Matisse should directly follow a self-portrait. Matisse is my favorite artist and has been an inspiration and influence over the years. His work is simple and perfect at the same time. Never more than it needs to be and never less. He is a master of color and composition. I have always felt there was a connection between me and my favorite artist (perhaps its just that we look similar: large, bald, beard, glasses), and did this little portrait as an homage to show proper respect and perhaps imbue my studio with the influence of the old Master.




Similar to the self-potrait this is a monotype printed from a copper plate on Arches cover paper with violet Daniel Smith etching ink.




Thanks for everything, Henri!

First Press, First Print, First Post

There are many milestones in our lives. Points at which lines are crossed, things change and everything is viewed from this new vantage point. I recently crossed that line that most artists bitten by the printmaking bug must eventually cross... I got a printing press.



This first print off the new press is, rather appropriately, a self-portrait ( a little bleary-eyed from being done at 2:00 am after getting the press set up in the studio).





This print is a monotype done with brown Daniel Smith etching ink on a small copper plate and printed on Arches Cover (my favorite) paper. First, the ink is rolled on to cover the plate. Then in a subtractive and very painterly process, ink is removed with q-tips, paper towels and blending stumps to create the darks, lights, whites, half-tones and lines that define the image.





To milestones and new beginnings. More to come.