Showing posts with label linocut prints. Show all posts
Showing posts with label linocut prints. Show all posts

08/05/2017

The Dacian traveler's journal

I have discussed before the first steps in the creation of a linocut journal for explorers of the Dacian civilization, available in my online store Atelieruldeistorie - jurnalul exploratorului dacilor.
Here is the second work stage, when I have decorated both covers and the first page with linocut collages, depictions also inspired by ancient Dacian and Getae artifacts and representations. The inner blank pages contain four printed suggestions on how to use the journal while/after vising museums with relevant artifacts on display, taking part in historical reenactment festival in Romania that often include reconstructions of Dacian costumes, weapons, and fight styles, taking notes after reading historic and popularizing works related to the history of the ancient Dacians, and visiting archaeological sites and digs - suggesting for example the Dacian fortifications included in the UNESCO list. The suggestion sheets are attached with colorful washi tape, giving an idea of how the journal should be used, as the idea is not so common in Romania as yet.


Linocut Dacian elements on the Dacian explorer's journal

First page of the Dacian explorer's journal - with the ancient Draco symbol

Instruction sheets inside the Dacian explorer's journal

The Dacian explorer's journal

The Dacian explorer's journal
 

13/03/2017

Music in the city - linocut collage & gold leaf

I have just finished another linocut collage & gold leaf experiment, a medium-size painting entitled "Music in the city". he individual linocut cut-out linocut prints depict musical instruments, the Baroque palace of governor of Transylvania Banffy, and two more architectural scenes. The background was then slightly colored, to render a sense of depth and space, in diluted browns. Still, there was something missing to connect to two grounds of the painting, the architectural foreground and the musical middle and upper ground. I thus decided to created a subtle, gold foil detail, a tree to fill in this missing element of the composition.
The collage is made on white canvas and just needs a final transparent varnish.
Linocut musical instruments

"Music in the city" by Ana-Maria Gruia

detail of gold leaf shine

06/12/2016

My first linocut prints

I started experimenting with linoleum in 2007, at a time when proper materials could not be found in Romania. I first used post-Communist industrial linoleum, uneven and very thin, often carving right through it and getting my fingers all dirty. I think dirty fingers inspired me to simplify the reduction method by applying different color inks over different portions of the plate and printing it just once. Another approximation was due to the absence of a printing press, so I obtained, for the sake of art, my grandmother's old, solid spoon, once used to clean my diapers (aka pieces of cloth) and then for her terrace gardening. I still use it for small prints because I have perfect control in pressing the paper against the linocut plate.
Despite all these primitive tools and methods, I am still proud of my first linos and discovered that some of the effects I was obtaining then cannot be reproduced with proper art linoleum plates, V-shaped tools and printing press.

Holy women - linocut print

Presentation of the Virgin - linocut print

Urbanscape - linocut print