Nurnberg linocut by Goddess Gruia

The linocut section in my Goddess Gruia Etsy shop has just been enriched with a new item. This a special, large-size print inspired by a trip to Nurnberg. The preserved medieval elements of the city are outstanding, matching its fame during the Middle Ages. I was especially impressed by the rich urban houses in the typical Bavarian style, with their organic and decorative timber and daub outlook. It can be offered as a travel souvenir or a nice decorative print.

Nurnberg houses, large original linocut print, medieval architecture of Germany, decorative color print, unique historical Bavarian style

The linocut was made employing a special technique - one cut out plate fragment (for the yellow roof) and ink applied by roller and by hand (for the roof openings on the cut out fragment). Due to this technique, each print is unique, thus not numbered but marked as EA, epreuve d'artiste, author's test copy. I have used tones of dark brown, black and saffron yellow for a strong contrast. Signed and dated by the author.
Total (paper) dimensions: 31 x 40.5 cm.
Ready to send.
The print shall be sent unframed, rolled in a sturdy cardboard tube. If it becomes a bit curved upon arrival, please roll it in the other direction and leave it thus for one more day in the tube. It will straighten and be ready for framing.
Check it out in my Etsy shop:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/584340303/nurnberg-houses-original-linocut-print

Linocut mounting and framing

I usually write about my art projects while they are still fresh in the studio, so I rarely get to follow up to the final, mounted works. I have recently recovered a mounted and framed linocut work from 2015, part of the Nurnberg project, from an art gallery and re-discovered the series. The print rendered below now hands in my home.

Unlike with other prints, for this larger work I chose a strong, colorful passepartout and a copper-colored frame, not of the thin, simple kind usually employed for graphics. It is like approaching prints like "proper" oil and acrylic paintings, thus making it more "serious" and "respectable".

See the Nurnberg linocut project HERE.

"Nurnberg" linocut by Ana-Maria Gruia

 

linocut project in the making by Ana-Maria Gruia

Linocut personalized traveler's journal

Browsing Etsy I have recently discovered the so-called traveler's journals or notebook, a kind of scrap-book documenting one's travels or an activity notebook. I have decided to create a similar project for my online shop, Atelierul de istorie, inspired by the ancient civilizations, especially that of the mysterious Dacians from the present-day territory of Romania. The project thus envisages the creation of a "diary of the Dacians' explorer", encouraging people to research this ancient civilization by visiting museums, archaeological sites, reenactment festivals and events and reading historical publications - and creatively documenting such activities. I have thus adapted kraft notebook with linocut prints and shall add indications sheets inside - as the travelers' journal is not a wide-spread phenomenon in Romania. Here is what I have managed so far:

Linoplate carving

Linoleum plate inked

The first print

First check in printmaking project

Notebook cover with lincout printed title - Diary of the Dacians' explorer

Traveler's journal series

 

50% OFF contact relics of Goddess Gruia

As previously seen, a move of my art studio is planned to happen until February next year, so my Etsy Shop Goddess Gruia is having a great discount of 50% for all art work. This includes the two linocuts that are contact relics - touched by the goddess herself in her Sancta Sanctorum - aka the studio. Have these images in your home, at great prices, and enjoy all the benefits: 

you will love and accept yourself, with a touch of self-irony, naturally. You will feel peaceful and curious, creative and forgiving. You will never be able to draw a straight line, but OCD shall never touch you. You will feel like visiting history of pharmacy museum and starting small creative businesses. You will work hard for small money, but that shall not dampen your spirits. You will never be promoted, but the world will seem a happier place nonetheless. Pray to the goddess and your tile stove shall never malfunction and the world will generally seem a happier place!

Read more about the goddess HERE. 

Linocut, original print, contemporary printmaking art "Goddess Gruia in Transylvanian mandorla", contact relic

Linocut, original print, contemporary art, conceptual "Goddess Gruia - cult image", contact relic, black-and-white

Golden network

Another mix technique miniature I made last year is special through the gold leaf experiment I made. The idea was to somehow suggest the tight network of local medieval communities, so I created an ethereal (though not quite ethereal enough)  golden net in the sky. The overall effect is rather Baroque, with the too bright combination of white and gold, so new time I shall paint the sky darker and render the net lines thinner (if such is possible with mixtion and metal foil).

The imagine scene is placed in the medieval town on Sibiu/Hermanstadt, in Transylvania, easily recognizable through the eye-shaped opening at roof level and the unmistakable shape of the medieval tower separating the large and small town squares.

 Just like the previously presented miniature depicting the fortified church in Calnic, this one is also made in a combination of techniques: linocut, collage, acrylic on canvas gold leaf and is ready to hang, provided with a saw tooth hanger (allowing perfect balance and balance corrections if needed) and canvas stretchers already in place, on the back (if, due to display or storage conditions the canvas should need stretching in the future, the pegs are just pushed in a bit). 

Dacian-inspired gifts for men

Continuing the special offers for the 2016 shopping season, Atelierul de istorie presents the gift for men, with items inspired by the ancient Dacian civilization. The package includes:

• cotton T-shirt, black, serigraphy imprint in white Draco-the Dacian war -standard
• handmade leather pendant (stamped veg-tan leather, hand-dyed with Gel Antique) on leather cord - depicting the same symbol
• bone pendant, camel bone on leather string
• linocut book mark / business card
• red wrapping

Tarabostes

The ancient sources mention two social categories among the Dacians - their noblemen, called TARABOSTES or PILEATI were those of rank, standing out through their wearing of the pileus, a typical hat with an in-turned tip, and the COMATI, those who were forbidden such an accessory and carried on bare headed.

Our workshop selling handmade items inspired by the ancient Roman and Dacian civilizations has recently introduced a new category or luxury products, made of more expensive materials and exotica - called tarabostes. It includes the following items:

• homemade spun woolen Dacian hat, pileus - available online, with description in Romanian, HERE.
• two gilded original paintings with draco, the war standard of the Dacians - the rectangular one available HERE and the rectangular, larger one, HERE.
• and special jewelry necklaces and pendants of the exotica type, available at atelieruldeistorie.ro HERE.

Handmade business cards

Business cards for artists and artisans should be expressive, with personality, easy to remember. After trying several classical variants, designer made and properly printed, I have decided to experiment with a different approach as well.

One of the variants was to use pieces of scrap cardboard employed while printmaking in my studio. The effects are unintentional and thus "different" and such a card has the benefit of being a "straight out of the studio" product, touched by the artist, that somehow makes the recipient privy to the creative processes. The only downside is that sometimes such scrap papers and too thin or with cuts or other major imperfections, so this method involves using better and more expensive scraps :)

The second variant is a bit more traditional and painstaking, in that I have employed linocut printing on colored papers. It still shows that each card was made by hand in the studio, but it lacks some of the directness of the first variant and it takes more work to cut the papers at the right dimensions and frame the printing properly.

"Life in the city"

The small painting entitled "Life in the city" is a story of happy urban living, depicting in warm colors a town scene. The atmosphere is depicted through a combination of techniques, with perspective suggested through the interplay of color, line, and transparency. It is created in a mix technique that combines linocut, collage, acrylic, incision and pencil on canvas, protected with a thick coat of transparent varnish.
Size: 20 x 20 cm (7.9 x 7.9 inches).
It is ready to hang - needs no frame, as the sides are painted as well, though you could frame it if you wished it. The art object comes with a saw-tooth hanger (allowing for perfect balance and balance corrections if needed) and canvas stretchers already in place, on the back (if, due to display or storage conditions the canvas should need stretching in the future, the pegs just need to be pushed in a bit)

The masterpiece is available, besides others (contact-relics, works touched by the goddess on the online temple aka Etsy shop of Goddess Gruia. 

"Life in the city" original artwork by Ana-Maria Gruia

The hanging system

Linocut for car stickers

The latest product, available online, of Atelierul de Istorie is again targeted for those interested in the ancient Dacian civilization. An original linocut depiction of the Dacian wolf (draco) has been turned into a monochrome car sticker. Though an online survey has indicated demand for large stickers as well, up to one meter long, we have decided to test the small variant first, measuring 15 cm in length.

Dacian war standard as car sticker

Draco auto stickers

original linocut draco by Ana Maria Gruia

The same design has been used for outdoor flags as well, rather successfully! One variant has also been transformed for the logo of the company. See that story HERE.

 

Goddess Gruia - a monograph

Writing a monograph is difficult in itself, but when dealing with a very recent, brand-new religious/cultural/artistic phenomenon such as the cult of Goddess Gruia, the task is Herculean. Still, I have taken it upon myself to bring light onto this fascinating goddess as I believe the result to bring happiness and amusement to many people. Here are the first few pages of the monograph in question, or as Google books say, a snippet view of the much-awaited publication.

Stories with paintings

This is another of my idealized vistas of Sibiu / Hermanstadt (in Transylvania), made in 2014, with a bit of collage (linocut prints of the old tower and narrow alley) and acrylic on canvas. The photo is rather truthful in its color tones, so it shows the reason why I like it so much. Hope it's owner enjoys it too!

In order to reveal some of the technique employed, here are the individual linocut prints that I used in the general composition. In order to better integrate them the prints have been cut closer to the intended contours and partially painted over.

"Night in the city" lincocut

"Night in the city" is inspired by my delicious trip to Torun, in Poland, depicting part of a street front from the town center. The linocut plate has been carved in 2011 and was used in the making of a graphic works series part of an exhibition I had that year in Cluj. This individual plate though, through its format and decorative effect, has been subsequently used for independent print, such as this one, dated 2014, made with bright green oil typographic ink.

For more on the sources of inspiration of works of the "About Toruń, gingerbread, and Copernicus" exhibition, see the "about Torun" video I made about it! 

The transformations of a mercury jar

It all started with a pair of beautiful, hand-painted eighteenth-century apothecary glass jars from the Pharmacy Museum in Cluj. The items were once used in the "Red Crab" Apothecary Shop from Bratislava, hence the red crab depicted on top of the signatures that read "Mercurius niger mosc[at]" and "Mercurius Phoshpor[ic]." In the Early Modern period many mercury preparations were actual used as medicine, though toxic in higher concentrations and/or dosage. The jars are included in the temporary exhibition on show, The History of Poison.

Working with the items I felt inspired and prepared a large linocut depicting historical apothecary jars, among which one of the jars in question. The signatures proved rather tricky, as due to the printing itself, left and right become reversed, so inscriptions have to be rendered flipped horizontally (a usual procedure is to draw looking at the model through a mirror, though my hemispheres seem to get too much confused and I simply transfer such elements). The full work is available in my Etsy shop.

Mirrored drawing of the signatures

Detail of the linoleum plate

 

Detail of the printed linocut

 

 

Architectural linos

I believe lino is a great medium for architectural topics, with its "encouragement" of straight lines and perspective effects. My latest Etsy treasury reunites several examples that I like, see the collage in the first photo, while the second photo renders the "linocut" section of my own Etsy shop Ana-Maria Gruia ART.

Venus pudica

I have just added another listing in my Etsy shop, an original linocut print depicting a female nude (Venus to be more elegant). The title, Venus pudica, is inspired by an ancient iconographic type of depicting the goddess of love, in which she seems shy and hides her face and key parts of her body. The print is part of a series made last month for a special commission.

For the print I have employed Van Eyck brown typographic ink, applied by roller and by hand, and printed on white graphic paper. It is signed and dated in pencil, marked epreuve d'artiste as all items in the series are different in color and technique. Actual print size: 15x17 cm (5.9 x 6.7 inches).

See Venus pudica on Etsy.

 

Printing for Scotland

There is another international printing event coming, so I am getting ready with post-card size prints to sent to Scotland. Cont(r)act is in fact an exhibition and a print exchange part of the Print Festival of Scotland. Deadline for submissions in June.

I have used my small-format "Happy houses" crumbling lino plates and some nice and colorful rows of houses to suggest Transylvania for this event. 
For more on the festival see their Facebook page HERE. 
For more on submissions for Cont(r)act, check this page HERE.