Lino-cut

Prints of “The Living Tree” Are Available for Sale

at the BaumWerk Etsy StoreDear friends,  I thank you for all of your kind words and interest regarding this new print of the Living Tree.  I am grateful that it seems to have struck a chord with many of you.  A number of you have made inquiries into when and if prints would be available to purchase.  As of Friday, a limited number (there will be more as I continue to print the edition) have been listed on my ETSY store.  I am selling these first fifteen for $125, after that the price will increase to $150.  Click here to go to the listing.   Please read more below for some details about the print, and thank you again for your support!

The image itself is 12″ wide and 22 1/2″ tall and is printed on French’s 100# Butcher Off White Dur-o-tone paper, which is 18″ wide and 25″ tall.  French’s paper is American made in Niles Michigan.The edition will be 1oo prints, which is the biggest edition I have ever made.  Every single print is hand made by me on my Wepplo etching press in my Rose Hill, Kansas workshop. The print is made using three linoleum blocks, as a composite image.  It took me over a year to design and carve the image into the blocks (although I was doing lots of other things during that year, besides carving linoleum).Many hours of painstaking carving went into creating all of the details in The Living Tree.The Tree and it’s roots are loaded with life, like this little owl. There are many spiritual and natural beliefs and dreams symbolically represented in this print.  There are many things which I see and believe about who my God is, and also things which I strive to cultivate in my life and stewardship on the land.  I don’t have many words as a companion for this image just yet, but perhaps in the future I may try to lay out those ideas for those who are interested.

Everything, Everything

The Sign of Jonah, guitar and voice

The ocean of images from the deluge of early February

everything, everything01 everything, everything02 everything, everything03 everything, everything04 everything, everything05 everything, everything06 everything, everything07 everything, everything08 everything, everything09 everything, everything10 everything, everything11 everything, everything12 everything, everything13 everything, everything14 everything, everything15 everything, everything16 everything, everything17 everything, everything18 everything, everything19 everything, everything20 everything, everything21 everything, everything22 everything, everything23 everything, everything24 everything, everything25 everything, everything26 everything, everything27 everything, everything28 everything, everything29 everything, everything30 everything, everything31 everything, everything32 everything, everything33 everything, everything34 everything, everything35 everything, everything36 everything, everything37everything, everything38

If you like Jonah, check out my friend Robbie Pruitt’s opus.

New Pages

The first batch new pages are up.  They are a new Printmaking page and a page called the Legend of Walking Man.  You can find them under the title “Work” from the main menu above.  The Walking Man page, I expect to be adding more information about Walking Man over time, so if you like that fellow please check back every once and a while.  In celebration of the new pages, todays image is pulling from both, to wit, a print of Walking Man.

Walking Man in the Tallgrass Prairie

Walking Man in the Tallgrass Prairie

Zechariah

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Zechariah, proof of a 3- color lino-cut.

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I’ve been tinkering with this print for a few months now trying to get it right- not really sure that I am getting anywhere.   While the 3rd block still needs a little adjusting- some of the lines are too narrow and gather ink to fast- it seemed ready to offer up here.  Maybe you can give me some insight.

The print employs 3 different blocks, and there are in truth 4 colors if you include the white of the paper, which is part of the design.  To cut down on time between printings in developing the proofs, I have been using water based inks.  The final edition will use inks with oil as the vehicle.  I have included a number of images from my process and some variations of the actual print along the way.

1st block inked up

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Proof of the main block

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Obviously, not complete, but I like the silohuette

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While not the best pull, this is my favorite one right now

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Zechariah (the Prophet) and Walking Man (detail)

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Cutting linoleum for a relief print of the prophet Zechariah holding a banner saying “Grace to it”

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Some new work on the objects in the foreground of Walking Man and the Ancient Ocean.

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Ewe Lamb; Color Reduction Lino-Cut

A few images from the inking and printing the first step and color in a small lino-cut edition of one of my ewe lambs.

In the color reduction process, multi-colored prints are achieved by a succession of printings, when more of the design is carved out at each round of printing, working from light to dark.

This first printing resulted in blue and white.  The next printing will be a green followed by a black or dark brown.  In these images, everything which is white has been craved away already, and that which is to remain blue must be carved away before the green printing.

Brouwerij West Crowns

Brian Mercer of Brouwerij West did a nice post on the crowns I designed for them.  Brian was a pleasure to work with.  He even sent me some beer.  You can see his post here, and below are a few more pictures of the process.  We ended up with black and white but in the trial process I used four different registered blocks to achieve various color arrangements.