Guess the mystery artist ?

Can you guess the mystery artist ?

Well, actually this is a trick question, the prints are by different artists and from different time periods. The first and fourth prints are by Matt Brown from Lyme, New Hampshire. The other prints are by well known Canadian watercolour painter & printmaker Walter J. Phillips (1884-1963). Phillips made most of his woodblock prints between 1917 and 1952. Matt Brown was born in 1958 and made his first Japanese style woodblock prints around 1993.

I was taken back by the similarity in subject matter between the two artists. Like Phillips, Matt Brown also derives his inspiration from the surrounding landscape, family and animal life. Looking at the work of both men leaves no doubt as to their love and admiration for Nature.

You can check out Matt's website and gallery at: http://www.ooloopress.com/index.html

For a comprehensive site on Walter J. Phillips you can visit: http://www.sharecom.ca/phillips/

Mabel Hewit (1903 - 1984)

Cleveland artist Mabel Hewit, whose work is the subject of a delightful summer/fall exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Born in Conneaut in 1903 and raised in Youngstown, Hewit, who died in 1984, spent the last 50 years of her life in Cleveland and Parma, where she produced dozens of colorful prints redolent of small-town and city life during the Great Depression and the decades that followed.

Hewit learned from West Virginia native Blanche Lazzell, a leading practitioner of white-line woodcut technique, who gave instruction in her studio in Provincetown, Mass., during the 1930s. The exhibition's catalog, which presents original research by Jane Glaubinger, the show's organizer and curator of prints, states that Hewit must have studied with Lazzell in 1929, when she visited Cape Cod to attend a class in outdoor painting sponsored by Teachers College, or in the summer of 1933. Judging from a 1934 color woodcut, in which Hewit closely emulated a similar work by Lazzell, the latter's influence was profound and lasting.

For the complete article see: http://www.cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2010/07/hewit.html

More images below......

"Mowing", color woodcut, (11" X 9.5") 

"Along the River" , color woodcut, 1959 (8" X 8.5")

"Welcome Home", color woodcut, 1959 (77.8" X 5.6")

Carol Jessen prints at Chemers Gallery

Here are some very nice images by artist Carol Jessen. For more info and links to Carol's work and Chemers gallery go here:

http://chemersgallery.blogspot.com/2010/05/letter-to-carol-jessen.html.

To go to Carol's website click here: http://www.caroljessen.com/

 

 

"The Papermakers" (left) and "Slick Tracks" (right)

"Edge of the Bamboo Forest"

Paul Jacoulet - on late night TV !!!

Not quite. Earlier this week while switching channels late at night I randomly tuned in an "adult" theme movie....to my surprise hanging in the background was a print by Paul Jacoulet..."The Miraculous Catch" from 1939. A cameraman's closeup of the couple making wild love framed the print just so that it looked like these guys were 'enjoying' the show. I laughed and could not help think if Mr. Jacoulet would have approved and if he had a good sense of humor ?


Anyway this lead is a good excuse to post these photos of Jacoulet taken in January 1946 by famous photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt for Life magazine.


more photos....

Tsukasa Yoshida Year of the Ox print

Anyone familiar with the Yoshida family of printmakers knows of founder Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) and son's Toshi (1911-1995) and Hodaka (1926-1995). Besides the men, the women artists in the family also have carried on the family legacy.
The Yoshida family studio and enterprises is currently run by Toshi's son Tsukasa Yoshida (b. 1949) a well known printmaker on his own right. I was looking over Matsumura-san collection of Year of the Ox prints when I came across this wonderful image by Tsukasa. For more info on the Yoshida family visit this link at Artelino.com

Tom Killion Workshop

As I mentioned last week I had an opportunity to visit with Tom at a woodblock printmaking workshop offered by Columbia College in downtown Chicago. Tom was gracious enough to invite me to attend the workshop and although scheduling conflicts would not permit me to attend the two day class I was able to drop in for a few hours on Sunday morning talk with Tom and take some photos.
The workshop was preceeded by a Friday night lecture/slide presentation at which Tom talked in depth about his printmaking technique and his passion for the California landscape.

"Mt. Tamalpais from Bulkley Ave., Sausalito". Multi-block reduction cut with 13 color-layers, printed Fall 2008 in edition of 165, image size 13X14.5"
You can read more about Tom's technique (mix of western/oil/reduction and Japanese traditional moku-hanga) and see his extraordinary prints at his website. Tom Killion's website is at: http://tomkillion.com/
(Click on any photo to bring up a larger image)
Friday night presentation...woodblock print step-by-step from sketch to final color impression.


The photos below are pretty self explanatory as Tom is mixing ink, registering and proofing student's blocks on a large motorized Vandercook press.

More photos below.......

Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein - 1966

A few weeks back the barenforum.org discussion turned to such topics as the current trend of appropriating other's images (commercial, graphic, computer altered, etc.) in the name of creating Art. These two videos from an USA Arts program from 1966 focus on two leaders of pop art and their preoccupations as the "movement" shifts to newer trends. To some critics both artists 'borrowed' from other commercial or Graphic work to certain degrees. While not exactly a printmaking topic I think this rare footage is worth a look.
The Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) video shows rare footage of the artist at his studio working on several pieces and the artist describes at length his technique, comic book ideas and other themes.

The Andy Warhol (1928-1987) video is quite humorous in a sense as we see a 'younger' and quite distant Warhol. There is a clip of screeprinting at the Silver Factory and some rare footage of Warhol's inner circle.

For more info follow this link

Chinese block printing for book making

Here is a clip on Chinese block printing for making book pages. After a bit of a history lesson we see what it takes to carve and print very fine Chinese characters and the special tools and printing setup involved.

Bareners Ray Hudson and Bea Gold are influenced by and practice the Chinese printing technique which differs quite a bit from the Japanese process. Here are a couple of references courtesy Dave Bull.
Chinese printing technique description at barenforum.org
DaZhao Village artists at work - video

Block Printing: Woodblock printing on paper, whereby individual sheets were pressed against wooden blocks with......
the text and illustrations carved into them, was first recorded in China in the Tang Dynasty, although as a method for printing patterns on cloth the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220, and from Egypt to the 6th or 7th centuries. In the Tang Dynasty, a Chinese writer named Fenzhi first mentioned in his book "Yuan Xian San Ji" that the woodblock was used to print Buddhist scripture during the Zhenguan years (627~649 A.D.). The oldest known surviving printed work is a woodblock-printed Buddhist scripture in Chinese of Wu Zetian period (684~705 A.D.); discovered in Tubofan, Xinjiang province, China in 1906, it is now stored in a calligraphy museum in Tokyo, Japan. The oldest surviving documented printed book, a copy of the Buddhist Diamond Sutra, is dated 848 AD, and a recent excavation at a Korean pagoda may have unearthed an even earlier Buddhist text dating to AD 750-751.In the modern Chinese historiography, printing is considered one of the Four Great Inventions of ancient China.

Indian Printing Block

After seeing the interesting videos linked by Julio yesterday, I headed down into my storeroom to dig out something that looked familiar ...

I picked up a couple of these blocks some years back, but never got around to exploring what they were, or how they were used. But yesterday's video shows exactly what they are!
Here's a view of the pattern: And a couple of shots of the carving ... They are all slightly warped, so I suppose were discarded at the end of their useful life. They are a very heavy wood, and although it is difficult to tell, I think they are carved on the end grain, as there is a faint concentric ring pattern visible on the back.

Hiroshige's 53 Stations on the Tokaido - video documentary

UNFORTUNATELY the video's have been removed from YouTube. If anyone has another source please leave a comment here.
Today's Baren blog brings a short documentary (total running time about 20 minutes) depicting the best known work of the last master of ukiyoe - Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858). The documentary goes in depth into Hiroshige's artistic perspective and liberal artistic license. Part 3 describes the effort put forth in 2001 to do a reprint of the complete series (actually 55 prints) using restored blocks carved in the 1950's. Interviews with printers Okuyama Yoshito and Tetsui Takayuki.
Visit http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/ for an in depth look at Hiroshige's work, including many variations on the Tokaido series, articles, a comprehensive bibliography and old photographs of the Tokaido stations.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Kawase Hasui 1950's video

Found this old movie clip from what looks like the 1950's and probably created by the Watanabe Studio as propaganda. It starts famous artist Kawase Hasui and master carver Maeda Kentaro (printer's name not known). I looked at the Hasui galleries' at Hanga.com but could not identify this particular Hasui image. If anyone has more info or knows the title of this print please leave a comment.
The video takes you step-by-step in the making of a woodblock print. Small clip shows the covering of a baren and near the end how the printer quickly makes an adjustment to the kento. Unfortunately it looks like either the filming or the video copy was cut a bit short....anyway this is wonderful stuff not to be missed !!!

Helen Frankenthaller - Video portrait

Video portrait by John Feldman of artist Helen Frankenthaler commissioned by Purchase College School of the Arts for the 2008 Nelson A. Rockerfeller awards.

Open studio - Andy English July 2008

Here is a visit to the studio of one of my favorite printmakers; Andy English. Andy has been a frequent contributor to the Baren exchanges during the last ten years and I just love his beautiful engravings.

Japanese print in modern day advertising

Invest in Japan Symposium 2008. This upcoming symposium is designed to highlight investment opportunities in the Japanese market. I thought it was an interesting use of a traditional Japanese print image.
I found this while browsing the Chicago SunTimes newspaper where the same image was used and covered about half the page. The Symposium is sponsored by JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) ad METI (Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry).
Quote:"...there has been a dramatic change in the mindset of the Japanese government and business community toward FDI. A realization has been made that in order for the economy to grow, Japan must be open to the world."
This is also interesting as 140 years ago Japan made a somewhat similar decision when opening it's door to welcome the West and it's culture.
The artist is Toshusai Sharaku one of the most famous (and short lived careers (1794-1795)) portrait artist in Japanese printmaking history. I found the same image on my PC among my collection of Japanese print images but in the advertising Sharaku's image has been reversed !
For more on Sharaku visit this link by John Fiorillo: Viewing Japanese Prints

Andy English - Preparing the woodblock

Here is a clip from YouTube showing barener Andy English preparing a block of lemonwood for engraving. Make sure to checkout Andy's other videos.

Andy printing on a 1865 Albion Press: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn9Q9n1-EiQ
Repairing a damaged block: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv-LwtaJYB8

Introduction

My name is Wimberley and I have been a lurker on the Baren Blog for over a year. I have previously taken classes with Mike Lyon and April Vollmer. Both were terrific teachers. I am interested in the next year or so in taking a class in Japan. Does anyone have a suggestion as to where, when, how long, etc. I look forward to participating more in the Baren Blog.

[Baren] Xmas Message ...

Every year we've got a new crop of members who haven't heard it, so once again the [Baren] Xmas Message is online!
http://barenforum.org/xmas.html
Happy Holidays, everyone!
Dave

Summit II photos from Louise Cass

Here are some nice photos from the camera of Louise Cass: (uploaded by Wanda)
Arriving at Sharri's beautiful studio(s) and house.


Barbara's quick solar plate etching.

Wanda explaining

Wanda's finished print
Charles Morgan demonstrating 'foilography'. The Columbia River at sunset from Marine drive. A much admired print in the Portland Museum Richard wrapping the baren Richard demonstrating 'bokashi' Mt. Hood instead of the Falls Who are they looking at so intently? The view from Marilynn's boat with strolling blue heron.