Block Prints

Japanese Lantern Woodblock

Japanese Lantern Woodblock for web I recently tried out a block print I'd done a few years ago in the moku hanga style in a new way. My earlier version was done with watercolor and rice paste. I used oil-based inks on the print pictured here.  Charbonnel etching inks are thinned with burnt plate oil. I really like the method--it's easier to get greater saturation and also much less of a struggle not having to work with wet paper--maintaining the right amount of moisture in the paper while working on it is not easy.  There are several types of lanterns found in Japanese gardens, and this one is an oki-gata, a small lantern set in the ground, often found by the edge of ponds, and rather unobtrusive.


Daniel Smith Printmaking Workshop

Black and white printsToday and in coming days I'm posting some art on my blog, all of it created by the artists in the printmaking workshop I taught last Saturday at the Daniel Smith store in Seattle.  We had a very productive day, and I loved watching everyone bring their ideas into 3 dimensions!  Everyone came with really interesting ideas, which made it quite fun to teach the workshop. Debbie prints


New Print: Tree Swallows

Tree Swallows on a Pine for web
Tree Swallows

Once in a while I observe and manage to photograph birds striking a pose that I could never dream up on my own--an inherently beautiful design that I attempt to reproduce as best I can in a print.  I share this new print in honor of winter and the Christmas holiday.  These are a pair of tree swallows we saw in a ponderosa pine outside of Klamath Falls, Oregon.


At the Beach

Caspian TernsLast week we spent a few days at the ocean, on the Long Beach Peninsula, staying up north of Ocean Park, where there are very few people.  On the beach we mostly saw birds, like these Caspian terns. I love their elegant wings and flight patterns and vivid orange beaks, which seem to go along perfectly with their raucous squawks.  Watching them resting on the beach in between fishing expeditions about 100 yards off shore, I thought what beautiful patterns they created in numbers, in flight and in repose.  If I were a textile designer, I would definitely make use of them!  A few years ago, after a visit to Padilla Bay, I made this block print of terns.

Caspian Terns  Padilla Bay  Washington
Caspian Terns, copyright 2015

 


Snow in August? New Holiday Cards Just Released

Winter Birds Holiday Cards
Winter Birds Box front cover

I am ready for some precipitation, whether it is rain or snow!  Yesterday I received my newly published holiday cards from Pomegranate Communications. These cards are block prints that I created last year, and include a red-naped sapsucker, cedar waxwing, Steller's jay, Clark's nutcracker, and cardinal. I'm glad the cardinal is available as a card, as people had been enjoying it as a print and wondered if it might ever be a card.  Thank you, Pomegranate!  The Winter Birds includes 4 designs, and the Red-naped Sapsucker box is one design only.  You can order directly from Pomegranate, or find them in gift stores. I have seen them in the Frye Art Museum gift shop, also Seattle Art Museum shop.

Winter Birds back cover
Box back cover
Red-naped Sapsucker cards
Red-naped Sapsucker

 


More Trees Block Prints

Mountain Hemlock for blogHere are two more of the block prints that are included in the new Trees cards published by Pomegranate Communications. Several years ago I hiked up past Schreiber's Meadow on the south side of Mt. Baker and saw a remarkable group of mountain hemlocks. I think it was one tree that was growing multiple trunks--a common occurence at high elevations where there is heavy snow.  I've shared the larches image before, but it remains one of my favorites. These I saw up by Washington Pass in the North Cascades. Trees Cards-1 Larches  Spruce and Fir for blog


Trees Block Print

Oregon White Oak for webToday I'm sharing another of the block prints I created for the new Pomegranate Communications boxed card set: Trees.  This is one of my favorites; I have loved the Garry oaks, or Oregon white oaks ever since I first noticed them driving down Interstate 5 past Ft. Lewis, south of Olympia. They used to be quite widespread as native Americans preserved the open sunny meadows they needed to thrive by burning the Douglas firs and other conifers that invaded and threatened to turn their sunshine into shade.   The oak mast was a very important food source, as were the camas bulbs that grew beneath the oaks. The print celebrates the famous heritage tree in Oregon that grows at Witness Tree Vineyards.  The Witness Tree was there when the first white settlers came in the 19th century to these beautiful rolling hills just west of Salem.


New Calendar from Pomegranate

Birds 2018The 2018 Birds Calendar is now available from Pomegranate Communications. Included are all new block print images. I love what Pomegranate's graphic designers created on the cover with lettering and colors that enhance the bird art. This is a black-crowned night heron, one that I saw at Pt. Lobos, California.  You can order from Pomegranate's website, and also find the calendar at Audubon shops and other gift stores.