After a week of teeny tiny carved lines on large blocks I decided to go more abstract. The woodblock process is naturally layered - but I needed a different kind of layering - something more organic and loose - less planned, less realistic. 

I asked Paul to cut my wood (birch plywood from Lowes if you were wondering) into four inch squares. And then the fun began!

I really loved mixing up colors and shapes. It also helped that each little block didn't take all day to draw and carve. And the background color blocks aren't carved at all! Check out a few of my block combo prints below. Can't wait to do more of these at home!

I kept chipping away at my woodblocks last week...making art at Penland is so fun...and challenging!

Here are the 3 color blocks and the black key block. Then I printed -- too much brown on the haystack, so I cut out the blue and red -- that left me with a bright yellow haystack! And a purple needle, of course. Notice how the yellow, red and blue layer to make a beautiful brown...and you probably can't see it here, but there's some gorgeous wood grain happening on the print too.

You know it doesn't matter if you liked it better the first way...you've carved it off forever now! Did I mention this is challenging?

Here I am, in a rocking chair looking out at these beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains,  energized from a week of non-stop creative work at Penland School of Crafts...life is good!

I'm studying with Paul Roden, a master printmaker from Pittsburgh, learning to make multi-block color woodcut prints. The studio here is wonderful, the people are amazingly talented and I'm picking up lots of pro-tips from Paul as we work together each day. 

The basic idea is to create layers of color from seperately carved blocks - one for the key block (usually black) that gets carved first with all the details, then one for blue, red and yellow (or cyan, magenta, yellow as in CMYK.) I have learned how to transfer my key image to other blocks, how to mix transparent inks, how to get perfect registration on the paper - and that carving wood is a lot tougher than carving linoleum! 

There are SO many variables to work with in this - the inks, the carving, the pressure of the printing press, the kind of paper - but all that makes it like a big puzzle to solve!