Rainy Day at the Pond

Rainy Day at the Pond

7 x 5

hard ground etching

Here' s an etching which I completed recently which depicts a rainy day at a nearby pond. This image was inspired not only by the rainy weather we have had this fall but by 19th century Japanese wood block prints which depict the landscape in the rain. I wanted to see if I could capture the look of rainfall and also to evoke the mood it produces.

The plate was step etched, meaning that different parts of the plate were bitten for different amounts of time. The lighter areas like the trees in the distance and the sky were bitten for the shortest amount of time, then stopped out (covered with asphaltum) to keep them from continuing to etch. I then continued to etch the areas I wanted to be darker. The lighter areas were only etched for a few minutes. The total etching time was about 35 minutes.

All images can be clicked for a larger view. Here are a couple of details. The first one shows the line work in the trees, bushes and grass.

 This one shows the rainfall and the pond water.

This etching as well as several others are available for purchase through my studio. Click here for purchase information.

In a Fog

The last few weeks we have had some lovely foggy mornings which are very typical for this time of year here. The exquisite, delicate color harmonies mixed with the mystery of forms enveloped by mist always intrigues me. So, this year I resolved to do a few paintings of fog motifs. In pursuit of that I did these three color studies last week. All are vine charcoal and pastel on toned paper.