New Manitoba Print Series

Manitoba I - Highway 75.

Etching, Chine-Collé, Hand Coloured.

29x49cm. 2010.

Manitoba II - Flax and Canola Fields.

Etching, Chine-Collé, Hand Coloured.

29x49cm. 2010.

Manitoba III - Pembina Hills and Hay Bales.

Etching, Chine-Collé, Hand Coloured.

29x49cm. 2010.

After my last city print I needed to get out into the country again for a little while. I've been meaning to work on this series for quite some time already, but I got stuck trying to figure out some non-toxic printmaking materials that ended up not working out and so I finally decided to go back to the tried and true methods and finally get started on the etchings.

The image with the little church I actually made as a large painting a few years back, but it's so huge that it doesn't fit anywhere and sits in a basement now. I wanted the picture to be a bit more accessible, because I really liked it and so I decided to make it as a print. I thought it would work well as a series that resembles a drive through Southern Manitoba since I always just see that church in passing on my way to somewhere else. The little church is one of my first memories of Manitoba when I came for a visit when I was 13. I fell in love with it the instant I saw it sitting so small and out of place between two highway lanes on the number 75 close to St. Agathe. It is the weirdest location for a church, but I'm happy it wasn't demolished during the highway construction.

In these three prints I finally worked with Chine-Coll

é

again, a technique I enjoy a lot, but that I haven't used in three years. With Chine-Coll

é

I use dyed mulberry paper for the larger colour fields. The dyed paper that is cut to shape gets collaged into the print during the printing process. I place the dampened and pre-cut pieces of mulberry paper with a layer of sprinkled on wallpaper paste onto the copper plate (glue facing up) and once the damp printing paper is placed over the printing plate and run through the press, the mulberry paper gets stuck to the paper with the ink printed over top of it. To get just the right colours, I dye all my paper myself with fabric dye (see below).