Twisted Pine

 I have neglected my black and white prints for the last year, while I concentrated on larger scale multi colour work (which I plan on posting - sometime!).

But the lure of black and white has brought me back to one of my favourite subjects - pine trees. Available here.

Last summer at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition I saw this wonderful pattern on a black and white dress.  The woman wearing the dress told me it was from Brazil and let me take a photo of the pattern so that I could make this print.  Available here.

The Mindy Project ...

... is a show on Fox and my Alexandria print will be used in one of the sets in the upcoming season!  This is a first for me!

In Progress .......

In late August I worked on a private commission.  The client purchased five tree images for their holiday card.  I retained the rights to use the blocks in my own prints.  One of the blocks that I cut was not used.  It was replaced with a similar, but wider tree.  I am now printing an edition using these two blocks. Two colours down and two or three to go.  It will be ready for the One of a Kind Show in November.

Production Time

I am working on prints for the One of a Kind Christmas Show and Sale in Toronto this November.  Only eight weeks to go!

Moleskine Covers

Over the summer I got out my stash of Japanese papers I used to use for papier mache and started printing covers for Moleskine 5" x 8" notebooks. Lots of fun.

Red Fish Swimming

I have to admit I like a lot of the names I give my prints because they are often just off the top of my head and relate very directly to the print. So Red Fish Swimming really is about red fish swimming. You've got the fish, you've got the water - they have to be swimming - right?. And unless you are colourblind, yes they are red.

Blue Horse Running

Another 'cobbled' together print.

The sky is from another reject block. What was I thinking at the time? It is a great block. Good thing I didn't throw it out. I learned that lesson a few years ago when I came across a proof of a print that I thought, at the time, was a lousy image, but years later saw that it was actually quite good. Did I still have the blocks? Nope. Too bad - so sad. I still have the proof though. The colours are a bit wishy washy, but the image definitely had potential. Sigh.

The landform is from a print that never made it through the proofing stage, but by this time I knew better and I saved the blocks and lo and behold this block is actually quite useful. I think I may have to make a few more blocks like this for more variety.

And the horse. Ah, that little horse block has been around for a long time now. When I first cut the block, I didn't have any real use for him. It was only a couple of years later in 1999 that I editioned him up in a print called Running Horse. And now he is continuing to run through all sorts of one-of-a-kind prints.

Holland Willow and Double Willow

Staying true to the tree theme.

I like the look of pollarded trees with their thick knotted stumps. I suppose I like them because of the interesting shapes that are created by this style of pruning. It is the polar opposite of pruning a tree to enhance its natural form. And it is a form of pruning rarely seen in North America. The Getty Museum in California has pollarded trees as part of its landscape design and I have seen individual pollarded trees here in Toronto, usually on people's front lawns. But not as part of a designed urban landscape. Maybe it would cost too much to prune the trees all the time.

These prints are willow trees in Holland which are pruned every few years to create a crop of supple willow branches. I believe they are pruned just high enough so that the branches aren't eaten, but low enough for easy harvest. Though I wonder if the willow branches are still harvested at all. . I would like to make a larger print with a number of pollarded willows receding into the distance in a marshy landscape.

Double Willow is available for sale here.  Holland Willow is available for sale here.

Cloud Pine

I am staying simple for the moment and concentrating on trees.

This is a cloud pruned pine tree and is my print for Print Zero Studios' Print Exchange V. So far there are two confirmed exhibitions - the Florida Printmakers hosting at the University of Florida and the Sev Shoon Art Center/ BallardWorks who are hosting in Seattle. Their last exchange had 285 participants from from 18 countries and the show travelled to four states in the US.

Along the Cabot Trail

About 18 months I ago I went around the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton and I took all of the usual photos of the ocean and headlands. Typical tourist stuff. But when I was going through them recently I found one of a rock face along the highway. Now I love rocks, but I am rarely satisfied with the way I cut them so I decided to have a go at these with a new set of cutting tools.


The keyblock holding all of the detail is linoleum and the backing blocks are cardboard with added textures, though the textures are pretty subtle. I like the overall effect and the colour combinations. The colours in no way resemble real life, but that's fine with me.

Available for sale here.