A beautiful, simple design by my friend, Maria. These berries are the most colourful things in the bush during the winter; they seem far down on the birds’ menu. And, as the tittle suggests, they are a reminder of summers past, and future.
Last summer a friend and I canoed the 250 km from Lake Nippising down the French to Georgian Bay then south to Pointe au Baril. This is my memory of a set of rapids on The French that we shot through all too quickly.
The pic is a mono print, essentially a painting done with a printing press
This could be the shoreline of a lot of lakes or rivers but was done on the Middle Naiscoot, a river flowing into Georgian Bay.. The river is being choked up with silt and plants because of both falling water levels and sluggish water flow caused by the beaver dams that plug both ends. The beavers’ handiwork is supported by the duck hunters because still waters allow wild rice to grow which attracts ducks which aforementioned duck hunters then shoot.
The print is a 16″x6″, single colour engraving printed on Stonehenge paper.
Georgian Bay is the place to go if you like drawing rocks, a landscape of rocks ground smooth by the glaciers then cracked over millennia by ice and heat.
This ink wash was done in the Bustard Islands but could have been done anywhere on the east side of the bay.
The far shore always looks so impenetrable but, when you walk in past the edge of it, it can reveal a giant cathedral of trees. Or, of course, it can be impenetrable.
After spending big bucks on engraving tools and a press, one that hurts to move even short distances, I read in the November 1946 issue of Popular Mechanics that I’d wasted my money.
It explains how to sharpen the nibs of straight pens into engraving tools and how to print using just my shoe. Not sure if I need a shoe like the one pictured but, if so, I might find it near the loud plaid jackets at the Extreme Vintage store.
Here’s hoping.
For some reason that escapes me I had a big sheet of a very nice pink print paper but it was getting wrinkled. With a process called ‘chine colle’ I cut it up and glued it to sturdier paper then engraved and printed a Bullarina on it.
It’s titled “When cows dream…an evening at the Bullshoi” and was a hit with two young friends.
We canoed as fast as we could across this lagoon one night. The moon was full and we thought we knew where all the rocks were. The one we smacked into was just below the surface and stopped us instantly. Thank goodness for duct tape.
7×9 1mage with 4 shades of gray.
TWELVE, an exhibition of engravings produced over the past year.
The show opens Saturday, March 2nd from 2:00 until 4:00.
I posted this as a reminder that winter can be beautiful. It has dropped to -21C/6F and, more than anybody, I needed the reminder.
This is a 12×18, 3 colour engraving. The van I was sitting and drawing in had a great heater!
If you’ve been in Guelph very long you’ll know Tracy McEwen and/or her work.
She is about to undergo brain surgery and the Artistic community is
rallying to help her hold on to her house/studio until she’s able to
produce pottery again.
My contribution to the Silent Auction was a print I created a year or so ago with survivors of all types in mind. I wanted to present the bleakness of their recent past coupled with the potential that the future held. It seemed a fitting contribution to Tracy’s Fundraiser.
A
year or so ago I did a series of six multi-coloured pieces completely different to the landscapes I’d been doing for a couple decades.Eventually I burned all but one block and one print but that particular print was the beginning of the more abstract work that makes up much of what I now create. I find it exciting.
This November’s show will be the first showing for many of the pieces.
