Labor of Love.

I have been diligently working every night - painting - painting. The "Sycamore Road" pattern is taking shape - one small painted house at a time. I had developed the repeat last month - and have been working on the painted technique since. For example - should the windows be painted black (like in my lino-cuts)- or just have a shadow line? I opted for the shadow line. How should the trees be rendered? ( Still working on those).

I have never tried to paint an entire full 56" x 30" before - and especially with such detail. The top photo only shows half of what will be printed on the full width of the fabric ( each house is about 4 inches tall). After this is finished - I am going to change speeds and loosen up a bit by painting my Swirl pattern on a full repeat (finally - as I had the layout completed last December). It will be so liberating. Alas - I am probably looking at about a solid weeks work still to go.

Once the india ink goes onto the prepared acetate - there is no correcting any mistakes. No erasing or painting over - so that is why I am taking my time - and cannot do any experimentation at this point. I have to practice on scraps if I need to come up with a solution.



You can see in the close up - I have put white paper behind the acetate layer to show the final painted version (without the trees and some other planting details added). Other areas have the under layer of sketches in repeat showing through. I used colored pencil to ghost in the sky - to see how the negative space will look in the final print. I still need to create the second positive of the sky ( all painted in black too) - to be made into the second screen.

This pattern will be printed in full width 57" on a beautiful white 100% organic cotton with a sueded finish. It will be a nice weight for both clothing/ crafts as well as home furnishings projects. I have not decided on the color-ways for the houses and for the sky yet- but I have some ideas... I will have a few strike-offs done to determine the final.

First Sketches.

Here are the first two sketches of the Charlotte House. The first is just a quick note to myself – just to "see" the house for the first time.



The second is getting more graphic – I am trying to eliminate and hone in on the details that capture the character.



There is something about the large tree in the image that I will try to incorporate – kind of an embrace of the structure… more to come.

Say “Cheese”.

Tonight I will be beginning a portrait of a lovely home in Charlotte, North Carolina. Because this is such a perfect subject for a linocut – I thought I would show how I go about interpreting a photo into a portrait.




I received these two photos of the house via e-mail. As you can see, the pictures capture the whole front of the house. Because this home is quite close to it’s neighbors and faces the street directly – I like the picture to be as straight as possible to the structure. If the home had some land around it – or was set back at an angle – I would request a number of different views to get a feel for it’s personality on the lot. In any case – these pictures are very nice and give me a good view of the details.

The sketching comes next. I was very optimistic this morning that I would have had an image ready to post by now – but it just wasn’t meant to be. With a morning of cleaning (very necessary) and an afternoon of fun kid’s play-date and t-ball – I’m just spent. Will have some sketches by tomorrow – so stay tuned.