This morning I went into the studio primed and enthusiastic about doing some relief printing. I like to work in a series and I’ve been thinking about a series based on a tree.

I was in a park recently and photographed some tees. For now, I wanted to start with a wider one. I like its pattern of branches. It’s interesting with its leaves and Spanish moss. But I thought it would also be interesting simplified. So my challenge would  be to see how different I can make a series of collaged works, all starting with the same image.

Here’s my printing block. I carved it yesterday. This is about 9” x 11”. Because I’m printing by hand, I carved an E-Z Cut. (As the name implies, they are really easy to cut. But, being soft rubber, they would not hold up under the pressure of a printing press.)

I started with some blue and some burnt umber dark. I mixed it just a little. I wanted most of the mixing to occur on the brayer working across the plate.

My first impression was onto white tissue paper. It’s perfect for picking up delicate nuances on the block. But oh-so-delicate. It wants to rip just by being looked at! (Note: this is not the carved block of the tree. This is another linoleum block I had, using for experimenting.) Now for some trees.

I printed onto brown kraft paper.

I printed onto cotton muslin and sheer polyester.

I printed onto rice paper.

And I printed onto a sateen fabric.

Some of the prints I made were onto pieces with some color and image already on them from previous monotypes.  (The picture above – rice paper – is printing onto a previously printed sheet.) Here’s one with the tree printed over a celestial sky that I think is interesting.

Here’s some of the “forest” on my floor after most of the printing was done.

Next up… gluing!  I’ll be composing these into collages on watercolor paper.

This week’s good news; I’m oh-so-happy to announce that my quilt “This is the Way to Get In” was accepted into Q=A=Q (Quilt = Art = Quilts) at the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, NY. The exhibit will be up from October 15, 2020 till January 9, 2021. It’s a show with an excellent reputation. This year 71 entries were accepted of 364 submitted. A nice affirmation.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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