In the Studio

I am sitting in my new office chair. It is quite comfortable. Thankfully there was someone to put it together for me. It arrived late in a large carton with not two pieces put together. Too big a job for me but so nice to have a chair the right height.

The full moon was lovely the other morning when I went out to feed the deer.

This second one looks more like a rich collograph print than a photograph.

Speaking of prints I think I am through carving on the grey owl until my new brayer arrives this weekend. More blacks were taken away from his face and some of the tree. The carving becomes much like sketching but without the benefit of an eraser to remove mistakes. It is a very appealing pastime.

I am thinking that it might be fun to use some of my tai kozo paper with faded botanical prints to set the owl apart from the tree. The dull greys are about right. But I promised myself no printing until the new brayer arrives.

The owl inspired another one in my bird stories book. A screech owl.

Today I went to the framer with the three large male figures.

 

                   

Somehow I got it into my head that an inner thin mat line in the blood red of the heart would look good just inside an ecru mat with a thin black frame. BUT the red took away from the heart so we went with a thin black just beyond the black stitching with an inch and a half of ecru matting with the thin black frame. It looked good that way. Each will be about 17″ wide by 24″ tall. So now in the hands of the framer. The three of them will hang close together over the wooden mantle that Patrick made from a wood Lee sourced. Seems perfect.

Last night I made a potato leek soup. Believe them when they say PEEL the potatoes. The good intention of added fiber resulted in floating bits of thin brown skin with no flavor that clung to the surface of my teeth. I strained the soup and I must say it is delicious and so easy. I will have it for dinner again tonight with a toasted asiago bagel.

I will sign off now with a view of last night’s sunset out the dining room window.

Til later….

The weather reports keep pushing the start of snow here out by an hour at a time. I hope it misses altogether. So far just intermittent drizzly rain. The other day I walked the dam. It was lovely to be out there after a workout at the gym.

Near the car park.

At the place I turn around to head back.

And the downed trees cleared off the path.

Lots of time to draw in the Bird Stories book.

A rock pigeon. Lots of them under the pier at the dam.

And a starling to finish off the four sides of rusted pages.

I think I should do a whole page of bird legs and feet to get more practice in. I did all the carving on the owl wood block. At least I think this is all.

I am intentionally leaving some vertical marks in the background to add atmosphere.

Looking at these photos I think a bit more black carved away on his face.

Yes, definitely, now that I am looking at this full view. His face and a bit more of his body needs lightened. The knot in the wood will have to be ground out because it resists my carving tool. Later this afternoon I might go back to it.

When I got this far I decided not to do an inking up to test it until I invested in a new brayer. All the other ones I have are cheap ones and no wider than four inches. Which means I have to roll over several times in different directions to cover the block. I went online to McClains printmaking supply and ordered a new Japanese brayer that is a bit over eight inches wide. Nothing quite like Japanese printmaking tools for wood blocks.

I just now spent the last half hour or more looking at wood block printmaking online. Some blocks took three years to carve and it is reflected in the finished print. I am not at that place where the perfection is most important. What appeals to me about the wood cut over wood engraving and linoleum block printing is the mark of the wood itself. It is a less perfected image and more obviously made by taking tools to wood. There is a simplicity and direct communication from a pine board and carving tool. The images I saw were either extremely well done or super simplistic. Not much in that in-between range of wood cuts associated with early printmakers. But not Japanese…those are beyond perfection.

I got my confidence back up before going back at it by typing in “white line printmaking”. I felt chuffed seeing my name come up fairly often in that category of block printing. I can do this. I can get this owl right….or at least right enough.

Til later…

Very cold this morning. I tried going for my walk at the river but turned back about a third of the way upstream. The river is rising slowly.

On the way back to the car the sun broke the horizon. But I was committed to getting a latte to take home by then and checking in with the cleaning lady.

I also wanted to do a catch up on my grey owl woodcut. The drawing was finished and then transferred to the block.

Lots of pencil work on each side of the kozo paper. Then using a felt tip marker to put the blacks in. I need to do this to actually see how it might look and give me a clear idea of where to carve.

Then a start on the carving. Getting the whites cut first on the face.

I use a baby powder to sprinkle over the cut marks so it shows up white and gives me more information. Then I just keep going. It is hard to stop once I  begin. It is the hypnotic sound of the wood being rolled up and away ahead of the cutting tools. I end up saying, “Just a little bit more.” Then I stop long enough to take the block over to where it can be partially inked up with a roller.

Now I see where more delicate carving needs to be done on his face. All the wood will be carved away to the right of the owl and below the branch he is sitting on. I wonder if a bough of pine needles need to come in from the top. No. I don’t think so. So I let him sit and hope the ink dries up quickly after blotting it off the block.

I am not displeased with the body and tail of the owl but think the face needs to be lighter. It gets problematic at this point because once the wood is removed, it is gone and that area will show up white in the print. How much white? His face needs to be lighter than his body but not as light as his beak and lower cheek areas. So he sits for a couple of days.

And at three this morning I awake with the idea of doing the owl in chine colle. This way I can add a lighter grey tissue type paper for his face and a slightly darker grey for the body/tail areas. That way he will stand out from the tree he is in. Of course when you might see these birds in real life they are hard to distinguish from their perches. But I don’t want that in this print.

I want it more like this block print I did of the front yard that is not only chine colle’d, but has added fabric bits in key areas.

I won’t add fabric but do like the idea of colored papers setting the owl apart. So even though the block is a bit sticky, I will go about lightening up his face and searching for the right greys in my mostly packed up papers.

One thing I have learned is that the Great Horned Owl is a more popular subject for wood blocks because he has interesting tufts up top and much larger more expressive eyes. Plus he has more of a contrast in coloration of his feathers.

Here are two prints by Fannie Mennen that I bought from the Southern Highland Craft Guild several years ago. I had them framed together. Her owl was irresistible! And the Christopher Morley quote is constantly inspiring.

In my new house there will be several wood block prints in the main living area. There is such a mark of the hand in these type prints. Most of my favorite pieces have that carved, hammered, manipulated by hand look. Hand built pottery over turned on a wheel. Gouged with hand tools and strength rather than machines. The physical effort is so evident in the work I most appreciate and like living with.

Anyway, I am off to do a bit of carving….

Til later…

 

The two houses needed a way to get into them. So a platform with stairs and a ladder seemed right. I added a house key to the top of her head. Some stairs and a smooth stoned path are on the left brained side.  Also a small flower that my mother embroidered is at the side of the house.

But a memory of my father is what inspired the ladder access on the right brained side. When we moved from the north woods of Michigan to Florida in 1955, I was told I could not take my bike because no one rode bikes in Florida, our dog had to be given away because dogs could not live in the heat of Florida, and on and on went his proclamations. One of the houses we lived in after the move had an upstairs with no inside access to the bedrooms up there. You could go outside and around to where there were stairs, but there was the occasional snorting sound of an alligator out there hiding in a ditch waiting for one of the abhorrent little toe nail-painted French poodles that seemed to populate the state at the time.

Anyway when we moved in our father took a piece of chalk and drew a big circle on the floor and said, “If we had a dining room table it would be here.” Then he proceeded to draw smaller circles around the “table” and asked us where we would like to sit. To the side of his dining room drawings he placed an actual ladder leaned against the part way down landing from upstairs. I never did know what happened to the dining room furniture we had in the previous house. Likely he had simply left it behind at the old place, or it could have been piled in a truck he intended to unpack at his convenience. I am sure at eleven years of age and dragged into a place where girls were only allowed to wear pants (and only peddle pushers at that) on Thursdays of each week, that I was definitely not amused. My first reaction when I hear the word, “Florida”, is to cringe. And little has been done to change that reaction in today’s political climate down there.

So for my father and his creative thinking in laying out a dining room and giving us access to our bedrooms, I just had to make a ladder for that right brained side. A couple rocks I brought with me from Michigan twenty-eight years ago fit just fine.

It is sunny but cold today. A soup day for sure. But I did get a new bird drawn for the Bird Stories book.

Still no new progress on my house. But I did stop in to meet the new mayor and have a coffee while asking questions about the town. It seems like I have made a good choice all around.

Later, maybe not even til tomorrow, I will get my owl drawing transferred to the board so I can start carving. But today, it is stay warm and maybe draw some more in the Bird book. My cats have the right idea.

Sadie.

Dilly.

And one more thing. It has been such a pleasure receiving good wishes from friends down in Australia. The holiday cards are still coming in. I am so grateful to have their consideration and thoughtfulness as I wade into the next phase of my life.

I started a new regimen at the gym this week. It feels so good to hold weights in my hands and move them into positions of strength building. I quit going to the gym two years ago when Covid arrived and forgot how good it felt to work out. Beside the allure of the punching bag, the trainer gave me what she calls a slam bag. It is a circular bag weighing ten pounds. You hold it high over your head and with all your strength, throw to the floor in front of you. Reach down, pick it up, raise it high, and do it again. Three sets of twelve slams can so release stress.

Til later. Time for lunch and some hot tea. I think I will have one of the ones I brought home from Australia and drink to friends down under and here.