Fanfare, please . . . Angel’s Trumpet, Brugmansia suaveleons, is finally printed and ready to be framed for inclusion in my upcoming exhibit, As Potent as a Charm. The fanfare because the sketches were complete in August!
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Three prints from the ‘pod’ series were recently loaned to the Akron Community Foundation. Each features a linocut print within a woodcut of a pod from the Chinese Lantern plant.
left to right: Peas + Pod, Skeleton, Lantern Plant
Many thanks to Chris Miller for the invitation – along with pick-up, delivery and installation!
image: Lantern Plant, woodcut/linocut
Tags: Chinese Lantern plant, linocut, printmaking, relief print, woodcut
Foxglove
Digitalis purpurea
“The operation of this herb, internally taken, is often violent, even in small doses: it is best therefore not to meddle with it, lest the cure should end in the churchyard.”
Nicholas Culpeper (1616 – 1654)
Tags: as potent as a charm, digitalis, foxglove, linocut, printmaking, relief print
Making leaf prints at last week’s workshop was inspiring, even for the instructor! This Castor Bean, Ricinus communis, leaf was printed with oil base ink on mulberry hosho.
Tags: as potent as a charm, castor bean, leaf print, printmaking, relief print, ricinus communis
The mandrakes, Mandragora, make another appearance in the As Potent as a Charm series – this time in the fifth pairing from the Solanaceae family. Apparently they’ve been unearthed by a hapless dog that couldn’t resist digging in the dirt. Their underground relative, the potato, is a much kinder, gentler variety of nightshade.
image: Scuttle, block print
Click on the links to read more about As Potent as a Charm or check out the mandrakes in Red as a Beet.
Tags: dog, linocut, mandrake, nightshade, potato, printmaking, relief print, Solanaceae
Oh, those Best Laid Plans . . . which seems an apt title for another pairing from the plant family Solanaceae. That’s Henbane, Hyoscyamus niger, causing the chicken to be a little, uh, chicken. This is the fourth print of unlikely familial pairs from the nightshade family. Although the related vegetable isn’t visible in the above detail, the logical partner for henbane is (what else?) eggplant!
image: Best Laid Plans, block print
Tags: block print, chicken, egg, eggplant, henbane, linocut, printmaking, relief print, Solanaceae
Just completed – another mixed media piece in the Imprints series! The client’s only specific requests were the finished size and the inclusion of a compass rose. The tiny compass rose print guided the overall theme and inspired the title of Imprints/Directions.
image: Imprints/Directions, mixed media, private collection
View more pieces in the series on joancolbert.com.
Tags: block print, compass rose, mixed media, printmaking, relief print
It figures. Last week I printed the small edition of the woody nightshade/tomato print and a day later decided I was somewhat unhappy with it. It was that darn black sheep, living up to his troublemaking reputation. Actually, it really was the black sheep, but the problem was my fault. His curly fur was too busy and too distracting. It was very tempting to just recut the block, but first I decided to try my hand at pochoir and change the existing print.
Using a stencil (the French/English translation of pochoir) I was able to lightly roll ink over the small area of white curlicues and successfully redeem the disappointing image.
Pleased with the results, I titled the print, Bittersweet, not just for the woody nightshade wallpaper, but for the happy ending.
Tags: black sheep, linocut, pochoir, poison, printmaking, relief print, Solanaceae, stencil, tomato, woody nightshade
Things are heating up both inside and out! Smokin’ Hot is the most recent addition to the Solanaceae prints, combining the fierce Capsicum (chili pepper) with its deadly cousin Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco).
For more information on the series visit As Potent as a Charm on my website.
Tags: block print, chili pepper, linocut, printmaking, relief print, skeleton, Solanaceae, tobacco
Black sheep and skeletons in the closet . . .
even the plant world has its share of family secrets, eccentrics and deviants.
Consider the family Solanaceae, commonly referred to as either the nightshade or potato family: members of this unwieldy clan run the gamut from the meek to the murderous.
The final line drawings of five pairings of Solanaceae are ready to be transferred to linoleum blocks – the newest in the As Potent as a Charm series. In each combination the virtuous shares space with the disreputable.
Look for mandrake (Mandragora officinarum) and the potato (Solanum tuberosa), deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) and Petunia, henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) and eggplant (Solanum melongena), bittersweet (Solanum dulcamara) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), along with tobacco (Nicotiana) and chili pepper (Capsicum). With about 2,690 additional species, the history of the Solanaceae family’s interaction with humans is one of dramatic trial and error, malevolence and goodwill.
The Solanaceae relief prints will be included in a solo exhibit late this year:
As Potent as a Charm
December 4 – 31, 2015
the BOX gallery
140 East Market Street
Akron, Ohio 44308
Tags: line drawing, poison, printmaking, relief print, Solanaceae
