Mindful Moment #6
Rebirth is happening now with the bursting of the cherry blossoms.
Big River Farm was originally an apple farm, with over 30 apple and cherry trees. Some of the original trees are hanging in there. Now the birds get most of the cherries, but we harvest apples and make all sorts of delicious dishes. The humming of the bees can be heard from our Pollinator Party Place as we sit in the newly arrived sunshine in the garden.
First the plums, cherry-plums, then cherries and now the apples are blossoming.
I have painted this all in acrylic, watercolor & oils. Now I am exploring woodblock, solar plate etching , chin colle and linocut.
I went to Japan with our Mendocino/Miasa Sister Cities Association artist exchange in the early 2000’s. We visited a Ukiyo Museum in Matsumoto and the Hokusai Museum in Odense, which featured the actual woodblocks used in his Great Wave of Kanazawa print. There was a small studio at a nearby merchant’s compound, and my interest in woodblocks was born. Upon return to Mendocino, I signed up for a woodblock class with a fellow Japan traveler, Walt Padgett, who taught the traditional mokuhanga method, using my favorite Newton watercolors instead of ink. It was amazing!
Rogue Wave (after Hokusai & Emmy Lou Packard) Linocut by Debra Lennox
Walt also introduced me to the solar plate etching technique. I was exploring etchings, but was intimidated by the chemicals needed to get the effects I like best (aquatint). A solar plate is a metal plate treated with a photopolymer emulsion that is light sensitive. Any photo or sketch can be transferred via an acetate print placed over the plate and exposed to the sun. The light “bakes” on where the whites (clear on the acetate) occur, and then you rinse the plate in water to “etch” the linework. An aquatint screen allows variations of gray. Sakura was a sketch in my sketchbook, and Cherry Blossoms is a photo that were both made using this technique.
A light rain has refreshed the Farm, and it is time to go back out into the garden to plant seeds & sunflower starts. Upotting the basil in the greenhouse, harvesting the ground cherries and Spearmint are Sunday activities. It’s time to fertilize everything with fish emulsion (after sitting in the garden sunshine- not the best of scents) and let the bees, dragonflies & other pollinators do their work. I may even have time to go into the Butsu and sketch some blossoms for my next art piece- watercolor, linocut or woodblock? I won’t know until I sketch and read some poetry.
Namaste!
