"Reflection" a Gum Bichromate Print

Reflection, originally uploaded by jrlarimer.

My printmaking has taken a new turn. For quite some time now I have been doing Gum Bichromate photographic prints. These are prints made by contact printing either B/W or RGB/CMYK digital negatives onto Watercolor paper using process specific chemicals mixed with watercolor pigment. The image shown here was made using a B/W negative that was first printed using the Cyanotype process ( historically, the process that became "Blueprinting") after this layer was processed using the sun for exposure and water for development, another layer was printed, using the same negative. This new layer was printed using Windsor Newton Lamp Black mixed with Ammonium Dichromate and Gum Arabic and the sun for exposure and water for development. After drying the whole process was repeated using the same negative but this time I mixed B Sienna W/C with the Gum Bichromate chemicals. The borders of this print show the different layers that produced this final print. You can see more of these alternative process prints at:
http://larimerphoto.blogspot.com

"Ryukin"

Most of my time has been spent painting for the past 2 or 3 months so I reoriented my studio and am now ready to do some more woodcuts. Mosy of my woodcuts have been printed in blacks and greys, but now I am going to venture into using more color. This is my first major attempt at incorporating color into my printing. This 7" x 7" print was made from 5 seperate carved blocks of 3/4 MDF and printed using Speedball Oil ink and Windsor Newton Oil paint mixed with Graphic Chemical "Tint Extender." I am looking forward to more exerimenting! Jim

"Gulls"

This print was carved on three seperate blocks of 3/4" MDF and printed by hand with oil based printers ink. The image size is 8" x 6"

"Beer At Meeko's"

This is a three color/value woodcut that I did based upon a photo taken recently on the trip to PEI. The two shown are Jerry and Kia from Toronto. The image size is 5.5" x 8" and three blocks of MDF were carved and printed with oil based ink.

Trip to PEI

I do not have a new image to post, but rather a few comments about the trip to PEI. As the introduction to this "blog" suggests I recently (along with my wife, Deanna) made a road trip to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. We left from Denver, CO and spent 4 days and drove 3000 miles making this journey to deliver 20 paintings to the Pilar Shephard Art Gallery for a "one man show" that opened on Aug 3rd. We traveled through 12 states and 4 Canadian Privinces during the trip and marvelled all the way at the scenery and the fact that things are pretty much the same across this country and Canada. The cars, restaurants (especially McDonalds, et al) people, habits, architecture, produce and pace of life are all the same. Well, on the East coast, McDonalds offers "McLobster" sandwiches! For a landlocked Rocky Mountain resident this was very interesting indeed. The trip was pleasantly uneventful in terms of difficulties encountered with transportation...the new Saturn ION got about 34 miles per gallon! We stayed with my family in Illinois the first night, Deanna's aunt in PA the next and at Daniels' (an artist friend)in Montreal the next night before arriving in PEI on the 4th day. The Gallery owners, Bob and Pilar, housed and fed us in royal splender for 5 days! What a treat. In Charlottetown we were met by some friends from Toronto who endured "exploding luggage" during their air flight to be present for the show and dinner at Bob and Pilar's home.

Suprises and interesting tidbits along the way: Niagra Falls is a circus (almost obscene), road consruction is a real drag, Karla(Sister) and Dad were generous with accomadations, pet sitting, home grown tomatoes, libations, food and Love; Aunt Jean, Dar and Mary welcomed us with open arms and hearts and lots of Love too; Did not know about all the vineyards in New York along rt. 5; Canada is EXPENSIVE, Toronto archiecture is grand; Quebec makes it diificult for English only and the roads were bad; New Brunswick is peacefull, neat and clean; PEI very pastoral, our hosts, Bob and Pilar, made our stay absolutely memorable and comfortable, crows were irratating, water was amazing, lobster delicious, dirt/sand/rocks/everything was red, new potatoes of every variety grown across the island...major crop; Celtic influence on PEI; Razor Clams; Daniel; Jerry and Kia; White Castle Hamburgers and Taco Johns! So much more, but I best stop now. Jim

"Mountain Wildflowers"

This one is basically an accident. I have been trying to work on my "Hanga" technique, especially the "inking." So I just carved a simple design into a piece of MDF and started to play with color, paste and brushes. I was really disappointed with the results and after thinking about the amount of time I had spent on this experiment I decided to try and make something out of it. I switched gears, did some more carving, proofed and more carving and so on, until I reached this point. I inked my block with oil based ink and this is what happened. I had originally anticipated this being something completely different, but fate takes one to surprising places. Certainly not a masterpiece, but I am not embarrased to show it.

"Mountain Wildlowers" 7" x 5" 

Hanga "Trees"

Hanga is a Japaneese technique that utilizes water based pigments bouund in a rice flour paste to create subtle, but bold and beautiful prints. In this one I was experimenting. For my water soluable pigments I used "Sepia" water based ink, mixed with wall paper paste. Eggshell latex paint (green) mixed with the same paste, and water soluable "Ivory Black" oil paint mixed with the same. All was proofed on a very inexpensive piece of "printer paper" to see what would happen. My brush for applying the Ink was an old shaving cream brush trimmed flat. The result is crude, but I see a lot of possibilities for future prints. Jim

Hanga "Trees" 3 color woodcut