In the San Rafael Swell of Utah, off the beaten path of the popular National Parks, is a small Bureau Of Land Management campground called Temple Mountain. A bit east from the center of the state, and pretty close to Goblin Valley, this place has no frills, but it does have a little ghost town, a uranium mine, some majestic bluffs, and a ribbon of a creek that disappears into the sand.
After visiting Goblin Valley we went looking for a place to camp. It had gotten crazy windy so a sheltered place would be very welcome, Temple Mountain fit the bill, lovely, interesting, and sheltered. I got some great pictures in the late afternoon sun, with long shadows, and saturated colors in the low light. The little creek seemed to glow as it sank into the earth.
When I decided to try and create a print from this photo, I knew it would be a challenge, there was so much that was critical to speak of the place as it felt to me. Each layer of ink had it's own set of challenges. First off I had been wanting to experiment with using MDF for my plate, second I had bought some Japanese bamboo paper that I was anxious to try. The MDF tended to dull my tools, and I decided to shellac it after each reduction, which made it even more difficult to carve. The paper was nice, not as heavy as the Mohawk paper that I've been using lately, but held up well to my hand burnishing, and took the ink nicely.
There are twelve layers of ink in this print, there would have been ten but the first layer in the sky and creek was too dark so I lightened it, the second layer was light enough but the Caligo Process Blue shifts aqua when white is added, I wanted a more violet blue to counter the warm colors of the land. Once the blues were the way I wanted them it took a while to dry enough to proceed to the next color. After the first eleven layers were printed the last layer would be carved from the other side of the MDF plate, this would be a transparent purple color to create the long shadows that I enjoyed so much that day. The difficulty here was that my usual method of transferring the image to the new plate didn't seem to work as well on the MDF, so I had to trace it and plan on making adjustments as I went, fortunately it worked out okay, but did require some fussy work for each print that made it take two days to get the last color on. I ended up with seventeen nice prints after starting out with twenty, some are always sacrificed as artist proofs, shifts , or smudges.
In the San Rafael Swell of Utah, off the beaten path of the popular National Parks, is a small Bureau Of Land Management campground called Temple Mountain. A bit east from the center of the state, and pretty close to Goblin Valley, this place has no frills, but it does have a little ghost town, a uranium mine, some majestic bluffs, and a ribbon of a creek that disappears into the sand.
After visiting Goblin Valley we went looking for a place to camp. It had gotten crazy windy so a sheltered place would be very welcome, Temple Mountain fit the bill, lovely, interesting, and sheltered. I got some great pictures in the late afternoon sun, with long shadows, and saturated colors in the low light. The little creek seemed to glow as it sank into the earth.
When I decided to try and create a print from this photo, I knew it would be a challenge, there was so much that was critical to speak of the place as it felt to me. Each layer of ink had it's own set of challenges. First off I had been wanting to experiment with using MDF for my plate, second I had bought some Japanese bamboo paper that I was anxious to try. The MDF tended to dull my tools, and I decided to shellac it after each reduction, which made it even more difficult to carve. The paper was nice, not as heavy as the Mohawk paper that I've been using lately, but held up well to my hand burnishing, and took the ink nicely.
There are twelve layers of ink in this print, there would have been ten but the first layer in the sky and creek was too dark so I lightened it, the second layer was light enough but the Caligo Process Blue shifts aqua when white is added, I wanted a more violet blue to counter the warm colors of the land. Once the blues were the way I wanted them it took a while to dry enough to proceed to the next color. After the first eleven layers were printed the last layer would be carved from the other side of the MDF plate, this would be a transparent purple color to create the long shadows that I enjoyed so much that day. The difficulty here was that my usual method of transferring the image to the new plate didn't seem to work as well on the MDF, so I had to trace it and plan on making adjustments as I went, fortunately it worked out okay, but did require some fussy work for each print that made it take two days to get the last color on. I ended up with seventeen nice prints after starting out with twenty, some are always sacrificed as artist proofs, shifts , or smudges.