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COLORBLOCKS are my personal exploration of color. My white-line woodblock prints are the application of color solely for color and removed from
representation. Each print is a study of how colors relate. By concentrating purely on color it serves as a conditioning, a sensitizing of my eye. The organization and simplicity of the grid format are vital to
me. There is both clarity and surprise to the decision making process in this work. Some colors could easily fill more than the grid while others are pushed to their limit. The unexpected mixes of color
delight me.
Through this work, I hope to encourage the viewer to closely examine variations of color. There is one pair consisting of an identical color in each COLORBLOCK print. These two identical squares are
placed side by side either horizontally or vertically. The placement of this pair within the grid varies. I conceal their identity, making it a challenge to find them. In this way, I invite the viewer to engage in
the pleasure of color distinctions.
I have always preferred to work in series. I immerse myself in a theme, building upon each new image, yet embracing the differences. A series emphasizes the study aspect of
art which keeps discovery alive. I envision my work in white-line woodblock prints to explore many series, spanning many years. New series will be part of the journey.
My first series of COLORBLOCKS numbers one
hundred fifty and is the complete line of Winsor Newton watercolors. The second series of COLORBLOCKS explores temperature. The selected hue is pure in the border, present within each square, but mixed and placed to
display a range of warm and cool. Future series of COLORBLOCKS will be based on value, complements, and chroma. As this media is easily transported, I anticipate a series based on the colors I experience as I
travel.
Previous exhibitions of COLORBLOCKS have been hung as an installation, creating large color grids made up of individual color statements.
Background:
COLORBLOCKS evolved through many
personal and academic connections in my forty-year career. Numerous influences, techniques and studies have merged into this new expression.
I was introduced to Interaction of Color by Josef Albers as a studio arts major at St. Lawrence University. I have been devoted to color ever since.
I continued as a student at the Cape Cod School of Art, Provincetown (founded in Provincetown in 1899), with Henry Hensche (following Charles W. Hawthorne, Willliam Merritt Chase). I learned to see and
use color by painting arrangements of colored wooden blocks outdoors. The use of the palette knife with oil paints kept the colors clean and purely mixed. The masses of color were kept separate on the white surface
during the painting's development – thus, white divided the colors. This separation of color was critical to learning the precise color doctrine since the paint was easily adjusted, scaped off, remixed, and
reapplied until the color was exact. Each color was influenced by those surrounding it, so continual adjustments were necessary.
I was intrigued by the similarity between the method of teaching color at the Cape
Cod School of Art and the separation of color by white-line block printing (begun in Provincetown in 1915). Blanche Lazell studied painting with Hawthorne at the Cape Cod School of Art and woodblock printing with
Bror Julius Nordfeldt and together they formed The Provincetown Printers. Their innovative development of white-line woodcuts eliminated working from several blocks, one for each color, and established the single
block method of printing. In 1950 Ferol S. Warthen studied with Blanche Lazell in Provincetown. She in turn taught Ruth Hogan, a grandniece of Elizabeth H. Caliga, another member of the Provincetown Printers. Having
studied with Henry Hensche and Ruth Hogan, I feel honored to have a direct connection to the origins of both color and printing in Provincetown.
Presently, I teach color theory using Josef Albers' and Johannes
Itten's methodologies. This involves the placement of square colors of cut paper upon larger grounds of color. No color is seen in isolation. Students apply their individual preferences to solve assignments.
The final assignment is to create a grid. Within this grid the assigned color must be shown as light/dark, warm/cool, intense/dull. The composition is determined by the student and I am always struck by the personal
timbre shown with each study.
This instruction led me to develop COLORBLOCKS.
Process:
My COLORBLOCK print is composed of a grid of thirty-six squares. I carve into a white pine block with an
x-acto knife. The size of each colored square within the grid needs to be large enough to show a distinct color, but small enough to be mixed and promptly printed as the paint dries quickly. The number
thirty-six within the grid allows for a rich variety of color. The size of the block, hence the overall print, is determined by the desire to transport my materials easily and have the finished print be an intimate
experience for the viewer.
I select a tube of commercial, premixedcolor as my subject to print. I begin by printing the border of pure color and one square of the same. I thencontinue printing one square at a
time in random ordervarying the value, temperature and chroma. As I mix each pool of pigment, I compare it to the previous mix and its placement in the composition. Before removing the print from the block, I indent
the white lines of the print. This accents the separation of color and allows subtle differences to be more obvious.
I sign each print in architectural lettering consistent with the square and organized nature.
Each print is framed in a whitewashed wood molding, non-glare glass, and archival mat. The label on the back states the color name, the date, and shows the location of the pair.
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