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This is a graphite pencil drawing. It is large, on a 22 x 30 piece of Arches. I did it in art school in advanced drawing class. It was a long project, taking most of the quarter. I arranged the skeleton, a plastic replica, on a platform, and it wasn’t until much later that I realized that I had positioned it just the way my father lay in his bed. He was living with me at the time and was dying of heart failure. The drawing was accepted for the annual juried student show at the art college. For me it has a lot of emotional content.
Elemental Habitats: Paradise
I love Albrect Durer’s engravings. Sometimes I take them, or other works of old masters, and play with them. This small piece (9 x 12 inches) is based on a Durer engraving of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. There are reasons why I like to put animal heads on figures. I think I know what the reasons are, but they float formlessly in my head, and when I try to verbalize them they don’t seem to express what I want. So I leave them as images, with a puzzle. It is a reductive linocut and was printed on a Vandercook letterpress. Each color on the print was applied in one run through the press. I think there were about 30 passes. The edition is about 12.
- Lady Luck
This is another even smaller reductive linocut (6 x 8 inches), also based on a Durer engraving. I made it for a print swap at a printmaker meeting. I really liked some of the prints I got in return.
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Here is another reductive linocut. A friend in art school and I decided to each make a print from the same drawing. We based the prints on Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I made the drawing from a photo I had taken in The south of England of a castle ruin I saw as I drove around a bend in the road. I added the figure and the gravestone. My friend was not happy with the print that she made. We tried it again with a drawing that she made and I was completely unable to produce a print from a drawing that was not my own. That seemed odd, since I take compositions from the old masters, but I suppose I select very carefully things that have a paarticular appeal for me.
Once there were Ducks and Turkeys
Once there were Ducks and Turkeys is a photo etching with the addition of some colored pencil. The art school had wonderful equipment for transferring images to etching plates. There was a big vacuum light box to get a close apposition of a transparency to a photosensative plate. I put together the transparency from a collage of negative and positive images taken at my friend Penny’s farm in Virginia. The effect is supposed to be dreamy and nostalgic. All the prints I made (about 3) are sold, and though I still have the plate, the press I own is not large enough to print any more.
- Olympic rain forest
Finally, here is another etching. It is the largest etching I ever made, and I will never make another one so big. The plate was 22 x 31 inches. I made it on a sheet of roofing copper, and it was etched in ferric chloride. There was no tray in the studio large enough to hold the plate , so to bite the plate I filled the sink with ferric chloride solution. Then I had to drain the sink into a bucket to return the solution to its container. The plate went through a number of stages, each time requiring a repeat of this process. Roofing copper is thin and floppy, so when I took the plate out of the etching solution it would bend and splash ferric chloride on me. It stains deeply and I ruined a lot of clothes.
The printing was laborious as well. Each print was inked and printed twice (that’s called a double drop.) The first printing was in color, the second in black. The paper was big and wet (etchings are printed on wet paper.) It was really hard to place paper on the plate the same way for each printing and paper stretches during the printing process, so registering it was a pain. I ruined a lot of expensive paper, but I finally got 3 good prints.
The image came from a watercolor I did in the Olympic Rain Forest.
How interesting. I especially liked the first one and the last three.
that last description made me crave printing again. the wet paper, I love blotting it and laying it on the plate (can imagine what a pain the registration was!)
also loved the first drawing and description. it’s really delicate yet present if that makes any sense.
Crikey, old woman, you are damn good, I had no idea!
That skeleton is magnificent.
Some really great art here Anne! Such a variation in subject matter. Thanks for sharing…. 🙂
Wow. Wow. Amazing.
Anne, these are just incredible.
More please Anne, these are striking. I love the skeleton, it is haunting.
And in the second one I see other faces too…..
XO
WWW
My first thought when I looked at your skeleton sketch was, “that’s the way my legs are now.” Maybe illness makes us all recline like that.
You are incredibly talented. I had no idea. Wonderful art work. I love the castle ruins.
Beautiful work, and wonderful descriptions that I can identify with, especially the photoetching technique! You are a patient master at the reduction technique and even the challenges of making that last etching. Looking forward to meeting and chatting about printmaking…
Wonderful work and I too love your descriptions. I don’t know which one I would say was my favourite, they are all so striking. Maybe Lady Luck and Once There Were Ducks and Turkeys (what a title!)
I like these pieces a lot. Rich….even the skeleton. I have a friend who just bought one. Goodness. Here I am painting again and hiding my work until it gets better. Yours is better. 🙂
PS: and what art school? Thank you.
Thanks to all. Of course, I have chosen to put what I consider to be my best work on line. Most of what I have posted is what I have slides of. Some things I have sold and didn’t take slides of. Some other pieces are under glass and therefore hard to photograph. I have done very little art work in the last 10 years. I plan to start working again next week — but I have been saying that for a long time. I am encouraged to start again by all the kind comments.
Maggie: I went to the Atlanta College of Art. It had a wonderful printmaking department with great facilities and equipment. That makes a big difference, but in some ways it spoils one. I need to do better at working in less than ideal conditions.
It is so interesting to see your work when I am immersed in art as I am now in Rome! You really have so much talent! As others have said, I particularly like your first and last pieces.
Your art is all beautiful, but I just adore that drawing of the skeleton.
What incredible work you do!
Great work! I loved the back story to each piece.
I am so glad that Grannymar pointed me towards this post.She did this because she knows I enjoy art and because you mentioned Durer.
I love these pieces for a variety of reasons, not least for their innate skill, both technical and visual.
I am fascinated by the Lino cuts…a far cry from my attempts at school year ago and from the simple Christmas card we get every year from an “arty” friend (she’s a brilliant weaver).
Thankyou