As children we still
had all those old books around from the thirties or even before. They had
hardbound covers and strong bold designs on them resembling woodcut and lino
cut prints with some fill-in colour almost looking like lead glass windows.
Most illustrations
were black and white, little vignettes or more elaborate pictures, all made, I
guess, by graphic artists using techniques to create illustrations to look like
wood engravings.
A canal with reeds
along its banks, with the water depicted jet-black and a few white squiggles to
show where the villain just slipped under towards eternity, definitely
made more of an impression on me than had the water been reflecting a blue sky and the reeds been a lush green.
Later, work of artists
like Eppo Doeve, Escher, Antoon Pieck, Rembrandt, Dürer, and so on, made a great impression on me.
I have always been an
ardent black and white photographer, to the point of shunning colour. Now I do
like colour too but not so that it takes over the picture. For example, in some photos
– thanks to all the new technology available to us – I tend to partly or
sometimes completely desaturate the colours. Some pictures look infinitely
better that way as colours would only detract from its tonal impact.
I do like to draw and
paint but often lack the time to do it. If I do find time, I’m silly enough to
make pictures of things I like and then I don’t want to part with them. That
sort of attitude is perfectly all right if I don’t want to take it any
further, however, I do want to.
So standing in my wood
workshop I saw pieces of plank, sheets of all different sorts of
ply, stacked everywhere. Then a bench full of practically all the chisels
and gauges I could possibly ever need. I thought, 'multiple prints'. That is woodcut printing.
For quite some time
I thought of all kinds of schemes to construct a press. As a variant to a crude
lino press I could perhaps use a hydraulic bench-press, which would be a good
start. That was until I discovered hand printing with a baren. Bingo.
I launched myself into
printing with black and white and colour, using what at this moment appeals to
me most, which is the traditional Japanese printing technique called Moku
Hanga.
For learning and
support I find the Baren Forum amazing (see link on Library and Links
page). They are a great bunch of people who share their collective
knowledge between members and are always ready to help
out with an answer.
