Apple Picking

Apple Picking. 
Triple-Plate Colour Etching.
45.5cm x 45.5cm. 2014.

It's time to post some new work. Apple season isn't quite upon us yet, but we have fond memories (and still some frozen apple cider) of last year's picking. We'll miss Minnesota's apple orchards! I love harvesting (anything) and having grown up without apple trees, (ok, ok, I had grapefruit, papaya, guavas, mangos,...but no apples), picking apples is still a bit of a novelty for me. Last year I canned some pie filling and cooked jars and jars of apple sauce, but mostly we made gallons of fresh cider.

I've had the printing plates for this piece finished for a while already, but, because of an upcoming show at Highpoint the presses have been busy and I decided to wait to print till things quieted down a little. I'm working on several new pieces for an exhibition I will have in November in Winnipeg together with my husband Terry. I decided to make a series of narrative work about things we enjoy together. The tentative title for the show is 'Small Pleasures' and will thematically connect his ceramic work and my new prints. Once again, I had a lot of fun working with soap ground to get more painterly effects in my work. I also enjoyed the colour range I got on my last print (Return) with three plates. Thanks to an effective registration system the registration of the plates is working pretty smoothly. I tried to work with a more simple composition without ups and downs and sideways, but I'm not sure yet if I love it. I took some artistic freedom with the cedar waxwings, which I saw up close for the first time last year. What beautiful birds! I think they would be more likely to eat frozen/soft apples and not fresh ones, but I saw them near this apple tree and couldn't resist putting them in. Well, that's it for today. I'll be back with more soon.