Woodblock

Tags

art, Four Seasons, Japanese, landscape, printmaking, reflections, shadows, woodblock

There is something satisfying about learning a new skill – a physical or mental challenge, an outlet for expression, experimentation. I had always wanted to try woodblock printmaking and this is the year I have got round to it.

Inspiration for my first large-scale print came from one of my series of photographs of a riverbank.

Cutting the first block was a challenge.

I like the strong image in black of this block, printed in the Albion press on thick Western paper.

The process of printing by hand on Japanese paper is much more satisfying though and gives a more subtle result.

A second block was made to give a second colour, by offsetting a print of the first block onto another identical sized piece of wood, and in this case cutting a partial shadow image.

This turned out to be an abstract image when printed on its own.

Then the tortuous process of trying out different colour combinations began. I made this more difficult by also trying different papers, some coloured or textured and also combining monoprints to give a varied background.

I was working towards a Four Seasons series theme.

Here are some tentative combinations.

A steep learning curve but I am hooked.