Flowers

I use real flowers that have been dried, most often under a rug, and these are expressive works; sometimes with birds and sometimes with vases. Each seasons flowers convey a different mood. Lithography was a rare different way for me to work. Most of my work is calligraphic whereas you’ve read I work with a intaglio method which a built up plate receives the ink. In a lithograph the image is stained on the stone with an oil base ink. The method for working is as follows.
First the stone is roughened, and drawn upon by my very greasy crayon. This image is stained onto the stone as a positive shape that I roll ink on and print. Negative shapes receive water not ink.
A Quiet Pond
Medium - Calligraph
Size - 27x27
Price - $

“Swirling, the little pond wines among the flowers”
This calligraph plate was inspired by canoeing on a lonely pond in New Hampshire that was covered in water lillies. In preparation for making this plate I put a couple of water lillies under a rug at home in Gloucester, Mass between two pieces of wax paper. This flattened a three day flower into a glue-able and two dimensional piece which I could glue onto a pre-prepared calligraph plate which I’ve explain before. It is a large print, brighter than shown in the picture above.
This is the only version left in the edition of four thus the price is a little higher.
Full Summer
Medium - Calligraph
Size - 18x18 ?
Price - $

This is a wildflower. I picked it on a hike, took it home and flattened it under the rug as most of the flower graphs are done. This was done like an oil painting. With my paintbrush, I touched each surface. The actual print is more vivid than the photograph shown. It is the only one I made because time ran out the day I was printing.
I really like the delicacy of this image. I look forward to making another print using the oil paint in different colors.
Poppy
Medium - Stone Lithography (Rare for me)
Size - 23x18
Price - $

Poppies are my favorite flower. It came up faithfully in our Manchester Massachusetts garden. Mace photographed me drawing on our ancient lithographic stone sitting right in the middle of the poppy patch even though the wind was blowing fiercely. You see the result. But making a stone litho is arduous. This piece has also been printed on the handmade paper I made after my trip to Japan to learn papermaking.

Bronalia Bouquet
Medium - Calligraph
Size - 13x18
Price - $

“All creation is contained in a few flowers”
This oval shape mimics an old fashioned presentation. The small flowers were put under a rug between two pieces of wax paper to flatten them so I could glue them very carefully on the plate. The small blue flowers are called browallia. I picked them and after flattening under the rug, I put them on a prepared plate. It was difficult for me to cut the oval shape.
My Spring Song
Medium - Calligraph
Size - 25x19
Price - $

“A mass of purple irises wait to be picked”
Again, the dining room rug was used to flatten these flowers between two pieces of wax paper. The first step in making this kind of image is gluing a thin dense material like window curtains to the board. On top of that, I glued the parts of the flowers. One of the rules of calligraph plate making is to keep the imagery no deeper than a sixteenth of an inch. Therefore the stalks needed to be leveled with an electric sander. Since the sander was out, I sanded the edges. The next step after inking is printing in the following way. It’s first printed with one color. In this instance it was green mixed with blue. A little residue of that was left after I wiped it. The flowers were each hand painted and the stalks rode with yellow-green and blue-green. When put through the press, the images become even more illuminate as the color is transformed from plate to paper by being imprinted on whatever color paper. Prints made with oil paint are color fast so they can be put near a window. This calligraph is one of a kind.
Lazy Days
Medium - Calligraph
Size - 8x36
Price - $

“In moments like these, flowers seem to smile”
Another flower that went under the rug to be flattened before mounting it on a plate. The stalks in the flowers were so thick that I had to use the electric sander to preserve the shape and make it printable. When I started making calligraphs I took a class and tried to print a sunflower without flattening in preparation. When it was printed, all the ink squinted out onto the paper.

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