Buttterfly People by William Leach

I've been reading this nice book that I received as a gift recently. As you know, I've enjoyed painting and printing a few butterflies here and there. This book is called "Butterfly People: An American Encounter with the Beauty of the World." It is written by William Leach who has had a lifelong love of butterflies. He describes how Americans from all walks of life pursued butterflies and how they influenced the character of natural history. He focuses on a few lepidopterists who traveled around the country and the world collecting and studying butterflies in the 1800's. The beauty of butterflies led Americans to understand nature in a much deeper way. He also discusses how technological and industrial advances at the time begin to generally take precedence over Americans' interest in nature, sadly. It's a fascinating story of people who were passionate to learn all they could about butterflies.



a plate from the book



Sundial Etching plate

I am trying something new with this sundial etching. Tomorrow I will hopefully finish the etching and then do some aquatinting soon after that. As always, I can't be sure how it will come out. And as always, I hope it works! Well,I guess we all hope our efforts work! Hmm.. I'm so philosophical... Anyway, wish me luck here because I'm anxious to see the result! (I like drawing because it always teaches you something new!)

Gulls and Crows Etching - 8" x 10"



I've been working on my etching of gulls and crows and made this print of it. I aquatinted it quite dark at the beginning (except for the gulls and fish) because I wanted it to look like very early morning. The aquatints give areas of the work nice tones, as you can see in the background. But sometimes there is a struggle and disappointment as the aquatint breaks down as I make more prints! As I am making more prints of this plate, the background aquatints are holding up well but the birds are beginning to fade a little. Hmm...anyway, I'm going to make as many as I can and like. (or feel like!)

I liked the idea of the white gulls and the black crows when I saw the writing of a friend. 

Crab linocut finale

Here is the final result for my crab linocut. Still, I wonder if I should add more to it but I think I like it just the way it is now! Even with small pieces, it's  hard to know when to stop working!

Crab Linocut (3 3/4" x 2 1/2")

A friend and fellow artist asked that I make a crab linocut and since I really enjoy making these small linocuts, I decided to make one, of course! Here are photos of the first two colors. I used the same piece of linoleum and proceded to make the crab as a reduction linocut, carving the first color and printing it and then continued by carving the same piece to get the second color.

after printing second color

after printing first color