I love successful printmaking days

The print below was inspired by a blurry iphone pic I snapped awhile back, while rushing past an industrial complex off the highway. It is an image which I have seen many times before in my native Northwest Indiana ('the Region') as well as central Jersey and Pennsylvania. The places change, but the image keeps appearing in my work. 

 Untitled XIV (Bethlehem)

monotype, 17x24 in

Almost four hours I worked on the plate for this print, which is longer than I would normally spend on a monotype. I rolled out the ink, created one image, obliterated it, re-inked the plate, roughed in the new image, wiped off the plate tone in the negative space, then went back in with stiff brushes to draw the details. I wanted to achieve a balance between flat and three-dimensional forms while maintaining the essential mood of the image. 

Untitled XV (Bethlehem)

monotype, 17x24 in

Untitled XV (Bethlehem) - detail

These are two more paintings I had created on-site at Bethlehem Steel. I found some of the outer buildings had great character and color. 

Untitled I (Bethlehem)

oil on canvas, 7x5 in

Untitled IV (Bethlehem)

oil on linen mounted on panel, 8x6 in

Some new Bethlehem prints.. I'm painting directly on the plate and experimenting with varying the ink viscosity to layer color.

Untitled XII (Bethlehem)

monotype, 4 3/4 x 2 1/2 in

Untitled IX (Bethlehem)

monotype, 2 1/2 x 4 3/4 in

New prints

These are some new monotypes inspired by Bethlehem Steel. I'm really getting into these industrial landscapes which are partially based on the steel mill, but also morphing into new imagery. 

Untitled VI (Bethlehem)

monotype, 7 3/4 x 5 3/4 in

In the two prints below, I printed the first one from a copper plate matrix and then went back into the ghost image left on the plate to rework and draw back into it before printing again. It's a process I love to use because each consecutive image comes out of the one before it, and there's a whole progression and layering that happens. I also need a certain degree of unpredictability, which is one reason why I love printmaking so much.

Untitled VII (Bethlehem)

monotype, 2 1/2 x 4 3/4 in

Untitled VIII (Bethlehem)

monotype, 2 1/2 x 4 3/4 in

I was very excited to learn a new lithography technique called 'maniere noire' - or the 'dark method.' Beautiful, tactile, almost like a lithographer's way of making a mezzotint. Love it.

Untitled

Stone lithograph, 7x11 in