In the waterfall

There she is!

Before it all begins, block, wood stains, 
oil paints for tinting, fine brushes
and a lot of courage

The easy part, a bit of walnut stain
on the pine tree and nearly 
transparent satin finish with a tint
of ebony on the rocks

Same light tint of the rocks
add some green oil tint

Same light gray tint with 
blue for the water

All the gory details

Finito! Added some shadows
and some pearl in the waterfall

Showing off texture
and my "chop"

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Beautiful cherrywood blocks

Why cherry?

Often I get asked why I insist on using cherry wood. My answer is usually that it is the traditional Japanese wood for producing woodblocks for centuries. But the "real" answer is, I like it! 

Not the easiest wood to carve, most wood carvers invariably point out that basswood is softer and easier to work with. If I wanted "easy" I would have gone into selling women's shoes! No, cherry is the wood for me. Amazing grain, amazing variety, every piece in my stash already has a beautiful image in mind, just waiting for me to find it and carve it. 

Cherry is hard, but the grain is tight and allows infinite detail. Tools have to be sharp for sure and wrists and hands will hurt. But it will yield 200, 300 prints if I wanted to, registers beautifully without expanding or contracting and makes beautiful prints. 

Finishing the blocks

The greatest gift is after the print run is done. A cherry block begs to be carved again into a relief carving, which is precisely what I have been doing with my original blocks. Lately, I carve deeper in relief and stain to match the print that the block worked so hard to produce. 

Once carved, I gather the original print if it was a color print and set by the block. Then I use standard stains and some non-standard stain and raw pigment mixes to approximate the color. I apply with brushes and keep rags handy to lighten some areas. Letting the stain into the recesses produces a darker finish, while wiping quickly after applying makes nice highlights and variations in color. 

Soon after all the color stains are applied, I give it a coat of satin polyurethane finish. In some cases I have been using flat polyurethane finish (In the Shallows, below) which allows for the wood to be protected without too much shine. The poly layer also blends the not quite dry stains so that the whole image has the feel of a painting. 

Latest

My block collection grows! Here are the latest, some stained some au naturel. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. For a peeksy at all my available original blocks, go here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/1000woodcuts?section_id=17653011

Angry Skies, still drying!

Angry Skies detail

Angry Skies detail

In the Shallows, relief carving

Moonshadow

Hija del Sol

Hija del Sol detail

Hija del Sol detail

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Getting the hang of finishing carved wood

The scary part

I really enjoy carving the woodblocks and I am getting a bit bolder, I'm thinking full 3D sculpting next year!? maybe...

Hija del Sol (Daughter of the Sun) gets a remake. Actually the entire history of this image which dates back to 2002 goes like this: I completed Hija del Sol way back as a reduction print, sold out the edition then and two years ago decided to rekindle my love for this print and revived it as "Just You and Me," a homage to nature.

Getting there, with the print reference hanging
to guide my chisels

I believe I'm finished carving, now for the scary part

Anyhow, this block was challenging because it was cherry plywood and that means 7 layers of different "stuff" that appears while carving. Although that in itself is interesting, I wondered how the different layers would take stain and oil and if that would make a horrendous mess. After roughly a week of carving, the thought of staining and messing up can be a bit daunting.

But today I felt bold and adventurous...

Stains and pigments and oil

Scary part 1 completed
A base coat of golden oak stain with:
1. Gold pigment by the sun
2. Copper pigment next layer
3. Mixed with cherry stain on the fringes

I use standard stains from the home improvement store as a "base coat" to keep the wood carving unified, after all this is not an oil painting. I apply the stains with fine artist brushes, of which I own far too many. I also want to keep the wood, er..."woody" not obliterate it with color. Stains are mostly transparent, they penetrate into the wood and darken cracks and crevices while really enhancing the carving, thus the application is always a surprise.

Raw pigments mix well with the stain and allow me to modify a bit, linseed oil acts as a binder for both stain and pigment and seals the wood. So far I haven't screwed up anything too badly so I'm happy with the results. 

Here I wanted to keep the wood showing, shine the sun gold and enhance the copper mountains. First coat was the lighter golden oak stain (MinWax) mixed with a bit of gold pigment (Daniel Smith pigment). Yummy shiny golden sun...I like it. I followed with the same base golden oak and a little copper pigment which gave a good transition between the lightest areas and the dark. Next a coating of darker cherry stain mixed with the golden oak for the front mountains, the water shadows and some of the sky. So far so good. I felt emboldened again. 

As I want the stains/pigments to mix, I work fairly fast so things don't have a chance to dry, wet on wet as it were. If I wanted harsh contrast I probably would let some colors dry before applying the next. The linseed oil which I add in bits to the mixes helps keep everything from drying too fast. I also keep a bunch of cloth and paper towels around in case some stain goes astray. A quick wipe and the error is all but gone.

I felt I needed more contrast so I added a bit of ebony stain to the cherry/golden oak mix and slopped it (very very carefully) over the front mountains, water shadows, around the woman figure (with a tiny brush) and a bit over the back sky. Oh how I love contrast...here is the final result with some details following. After about 24 hours I will decide if it needs a coating of polyurethane of if it's "a go" as is. 

Camus said: "There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night"
By adding dark ebony mix and later a few careful touches
of pure ebony stain, the light shines bright

Hija del sol up front, surrounded by gold,
ready to enter into the dark waters,
following the sun (yeah, I just made that up)

Gold, copper and umber mountains, the carving
really comes through when the crevices fill
with the dark ebony

Part of the composition with sun, mountains and Hija del Sol

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Carving adventures in bas relief

What to do with all those woodblocks

Printmakers are the luckiest bunch in art. Tradition dictates we are the ones who reach the audiences with our multiple editions and relatively affordable artworks. Although some see the "limited edition" as an obstacle, I have learned through the years that any one image has a long life even at editions of 100 or less. And they sell better if they are limited in scope as people still see unlimited editions as "production work" or "reproductions" gasp! Right or not, that is the reality among the masses.

In the shallows, framed along side the last print

Yet another advantage of being a printmaker is that we can have a foot into the "one of a kind" world with our carved woodblocks. Long ago I learned that the same masses also love the unique and are willing to pay large sums to be the only one to own a piece of art.

So long ago I started selling my cancelled blocks to satisfy that craving. With over 600 images completed, that's a lot of woodblocks I don't have to store!

How I cancel and beautify woodblocks

Floating World II

Detail of Floating World II

Cancelling the blocks is a problem because invariably some wanna be artist comments: "oh so I can make prints from that if I buy it!?" Ummmm... not really, no...definitely not! I had to find a way that the blocks were unprintable. Tried many approaches, signing and dating in the front of the block, heavy polyurethane coating, stain and poly to fill the lines, leave the last inking to dry on the block to fill in the lines. All were good approaches and made the blocks look awesome, but this year I decided to transform my blocks even more and turn them into bas relief pieces. And oh how I love carving!

Here in pictures are some of my latest creations.

Fragile
This was a tedious undertaking, the block is just
9x9 inches. All I did is recede the background and
"round" the bodies to give them...er...body!
Finished the block with two coats of linseed oil,
second coat lightly tinted with cherry stain to give
the lines more depth

Moonshadow
This block needed 3 "layers" in bas relief speak.
Sky to be receded the most, moon rounded and in a middle
layer, and the lady-shadow to be the front layer.
Carving plank cherry is very involved, especially between
all those "cloud trails." 

Detail of the edge of the moon against
the sky layer. Trickery: the edges of one
layer against another get deeper carving
which gives the illusion of more depth contrast
between layers

After staining, sky got darker with an ebony stain and linseed oil.
Moon got lighter with iridescent pearl pigment mixed with oil, and
my lady received a very light coating of ebony, bronze pigment and
linseed oil. After the oil dried, I lightly buffed the whole block with
a soft cloth and gave it a polyurethane (satin finish) bath to seal
in the pigments.

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Teaching an old dog new tricks

Trick one: less is enough

Teaching this trick was tough. This dog (that's me, in case the analogy eludes you) knows how to do a festival, having bagged around 200+ in my lifetime. Those included traveling as many as 1500 miles, rain, hail, snow, 70 mph gusts of wind, 107 degree temperatures although, of course, nice weather and beautiful locales for most. So what can a smaller easy festival in an indoor setting (no tent!) teach the old festival dog?

Simplicity!

Here is my pile ready to go, hardly a dent in my muscles and hardly a load for my truck. Three print bins, a fold-a-carry-all-office desk (Flight-Table), a stool to sit on. Which makes me a bit panicky...do I have EVERYTHING???

Ready for festivaling

BTW 

Kyle Canyon Crafters Artisan Craft FairAUGUST 3-4 SAT and SUN 10am - 4pmTHE RETREAT 2755 Kyle Canyon Road, Mt Charleston NVlook for me inside the awesome lodge

Trick two: never enough tools

I have been reading about wood carving because, out of all the tasks involved in making woodcuts, this is what I like to do the most. So I am digging up all my used blocks and making some new blocks based on my existing images and making relief carvings. I started out shallow and will work to deep relief, maybe eventually go full 3-D. 

For now, I am enjoying carving every minute of my studio time and so I started reading to pick up tricks specific to relief carving. And here is an awesome one!

The traditional Japanese woodblock carver uses a toh or single blade knife to make the first cuts around lines. Here is a picture stolen from the incomparable Annie Bissett's blog https://woodblockdreams.blogspot.com/2008/05/more-about-hangi-toh-knife.html

Traditional hangi-toh knife for outlining woodblock carving

And a fine knife it is, however I'm carving cherry wood and very deeply so. The blade of my hangi-toh (toh's I own several) just felt a bit flimsy and I had to go over my lines over and over and over and... 

Always looking for efficiency, I came up with the versatile chip carving knife! Of course I already own about three different versions, the one pictured below folds for travel and has two blades, one sturdier than the other. 

Presto! deep lines, full control and quick but precise carved lines and stop cuts.

The very chip carving knife I own

Woodblock for Moonshadow and my arsenal
I am making the sky recede, the moon rounded,
and the lady of the moon will be left up front
with some rounding and reshaping

The chip carving knife being driven deep into cherry wood

My depth gauge (yeah, I have one of those) tells me
I'm about half-way through the block so that's enough
for the deepest layer

I reiterate...

Kyle Canyon Crafters Artisan Craft FairAUGUST 3-4 SAT and SUN 10am - 4pmTHE RETREAT 2755 Kyle Canyon Road, Mt Charleston NVlook for me inside the awesome lodge

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Some details on details

Couple of tiny details

You may not know this but a while back I started carving my "chop" and a small relevant Native American symbol on my prints. Tiny, very tiny, so as not to interfere with the design. Since most of my work is "dense" with many marks and especially many curvy marks, these have gone unnoticed. Someone who bought one of my prints noticed one and asked so I thought I would share with all.

A "chop" is a special marking to identify prints produced in their studio or shop. This marking is known as a “chop” and is either embossed or stamped somewhere on the print. Traditional Japanese woodblock prints, produced in large studios with many collaborators, often have several chops stamped on each print, one for the designer, one for the printer, and so on.

The tradition continues in many studios and many solo printmakers choose to add a chop to their works. Two examples:

Bill Ritchie's chop stamped
from carved wood stamps (guessing)

Tamarind Studio embossed chop with
adjacent printer's chop

My chops

Ever efficient and slightly dissonant with tradition, I usually carve my chop right on the block and let it print within the design. Because I don't want to disturb the compositions, the chops are tiny and often hidden within a whirlwind of my markings. 

One chop I use is a simple rounded M with an A underneath, completing a circular design. My initials.

The other chop I often use is one of many Native American symbols. I have various books and cards full of them and have found many out on my hikes carved or painted in rocks around this area. Carved symbols or entire panels of Native art are called petroglyphs, many times the carvings are painted; sometimes erosion and nature's forces have changed the color of the carved portion against the surrounding rock. Painted panels are usually called pictographs and are a beauty to see, worn by the ages and telling of many stories of the ancient dwellers of the desert. Many panels have a combination of story telling and symbolism. Really fascinating stuff to learn.

Susan Glarion photographer, Newspaper Rock in Moab Utah

Here is my latest print highlighting the chop marks. The butterfly is Native symbol of everlasting life, the other chop is my initials MA in a circle. I add a different Native American symbol to my prints but always my initials.

Left bottom, butterfly symbol meaning
everlasting life

Right bottom, circular MA, my signature

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Peace and beauty from across the USA

From Across the USA

I am very happy that blocks are starting to come in now at a steady pace. Artists feel free to post on Facebook and let me know and I will share on my FB page as well.

I have word that two more blocks are on the way back so I am diligently trying to keep up with all the work and setting up the book. Everyone as you finish your beautiful images, please think about sharing some words with the world about you, your image or anything else you would like published in the book Peace in Print.

Here is the link to enter your info:

http://1000woodcuts.blogspot.com/2015/03/peace-puzzle-information.html 

Notice below how Ray Hudson, a very observant artist, has caught on to my quest for dark chocolate and sent a nice box along with his block. Sure, you don't want to copy someone else's idea, but I promise I won't tell. In addition to chocolate I am also a fan of red wine (bit harder to send in a small box) and anything Spanish, or anything from all corners of the world...(no pressure). All in jest, of course!

And if you want to wrap your block in your local newspaper, that always entertains me when faced with the task of unwrapping, photographing and cataloging each image. I have a great "time capsule" from the previous City of the World newspaper collection!

Ray Hudson
Middlebury, Vermont

Peace for me involves the sea, the air in motion, and the earth in full bloom: all things rejoicing. All things striving.

Ray Hudson, Middlebury Vermont USA
Peace Puzzle 2015 contribution

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OXS Gallery exhibit in Nevada Magazine

Nice surprise!

While doing some post-family gathering cleaning, I came upon the latest issue of the Nevada Magazine January/February 2015 (pp 54). And there it was! An OXS Nevada Arts Council Exhibit blurb with some of my artwork.

My work is the traditional woodcut with the dancers, a piece called Baile del Sol inspired by one of the many flamenco tunes I play while I work in the studio. Ole! Also showing are other figurative works on paper with the carved woodblocks side by side. Exhibit is up in Carson City Nevada (Nevada Arts Council headquarters) until the end of January.

Carved wood au naturel

Nothing like wood!

Some blocks, for one reason or another, just look yummy as they are. These last two blocks, one cherry and one Baltic birch, looked pretty good after cleaning off the ink and applying some citrus paint stripper.
The cherry block I can explain; cherry wood is very tight grained and the ink used during printing didn't penetrate the lows and carved "scars". When the ink (and the dancers' clothing, apparently :-)was removed by the paint stripper, the cherry looked just as good as just after I first finished carving. The paint stripper has oils to protect the wood while the chemicals soften the ink (paint, etc.), so the block was finished.
Baile del Sol with details.

Baile del Sol, original woodblock
After citrus paint stripper and a clear urethane satin finish

A little more trouble explaining why some Baltic birch blocks clean up nicely and others don't. But if I recall, I believe I used linseed oil to seal this one before cutting and printing so perhaps that had something to do with the cleanliness. This second block, Uprooted, was grateful enough to clean up nicely and the wood grain shows exquisitely! Moreover, the lines filled with the ink residue and show as dark on a light wood background, exactly the opposite as the print. Cool deal!

Uprooted, original woodblock ready for exhibit

I uploaded a photo album to my Facebook page 1000Woodcuts if you want to see all the blocks together with details.
The awesome Nevada Arts Council worker bee came over a couple of days ago and picked up 5 blocks and 5 prints in their tuxedos (black frames) and the show will begin November 1st at the Nevada Arts Council OXS Gallery in Reno Nevada. I am planning a drive up there to document the exhibit...or perhaps because I like driving across the desert?