Grues cendrées

This woodcut is about the common crane (Grus grus), made as part of an exchange with other members of the Baren Forum. The topic was ‘movement in nature’.

The birds migrate from northern Europe towards Marocco and Galicie, in Spain, north of Portugal for the winter. Normally the bulk crosses the Pyrenees more towards the west. In certain weather conditions some cranes cross the mountains flying directly over where we live in Cambieure in the Aude near the Mediterranean Sea.

They usually migrate during early November, but this time it was about two weeks earlier than the previous year on a particularly unsettled day, battling winds gusts of between 80 and100km per hour.

I was standing in front of my workshop when I thought I heard the wind crying through the power lines nearby. The wind was strong, but surely not that strong. I was surprised to see a flock of cranes emerging low over the vineyard from behind the cypresses, caught in a whoosh of wind, crying out in distress while being tossed around. A pity that I did not have my camera with me just then.

The group was broken up and blown off course towards Perpignan in the east. It took them a few hours struggling, battling straight into the wind before being able to regroup and head off across the Pyrenees. This time I managed a few photos as they were regrouping over Cambieure.

The print is called “Grues cendrées” as the French call them after their silvery grey plumage.

I used one block of Hoop pine and one block of poplar ply wood, water based ink and pressed them on the etching press. The ink on the block depicting the birds in the negative and the clouds was brushed on “bokashi” style with a bit of ochre mixed in with the black to give the clouds a bit of a dirty colour. The block depicting the birds in the positive was brushed on as well. To see how that was done please visit my website www.acwwoodcuts.com

One website in particular has a lot of information about the crane and you can also find a short film on that website http://www.thegreatcraneproject.org.uk/project/return-cranes

Fig tree print

Fig tree print

Friday evening. Years ago in Palmerston North, New Zealand. On my way back to the boarding address I bought myself a bag (serious size) of dried figs to help me through the weekend while swatting for exams coming up the next week. As soon as I got through the door the bag was open and in spite of exercising all the will power I could muster it lasted all but an hour and a half. FINITO.

Tried it again a few years later in Opotiki. Faced with a weekend by myself I got hold of another serious sized bag with dried figs. Took one...another....then another and then I remembered the first bag. Soooo... I put the bag in a cupboard in another room, safe...I thought...not for long …….before I found the bag.

Some figs later I placed it behind a stack of plates so that I would have to go down on my knees in an awkward position in order to get to that bag. That I did and lo, surprise, I found those figs again. Anyway it figures that in spite of all my heroic efforts those figs did not make it long enough to see the end of the early evening news that Friday.

I just LUUUUVE figs. Dried, fresh, in brandy, with vanilla ice-cream, whatever.

Now we live in South France with four very good producing fig trees on the property. It did not long for Cassy our Labrador to park himself under the fig tree. 

Cassy's favourite tree

He took care of anything up to about one meter twenty. The birds took care of anything we couldn’t reach and we had what was left.

 Planted more fig trees

With fig smeared around my mouth and dirty fig fingers I decided to plant a few more. We have now some late fruiting varieties as well. It all equates to fig heaven.

Apart from some interesting facts like; its name “Ficus carica” (the plant itself is totally unaware of its name. No one ever told it by what name it grew in this world of ours),  its curious fruit, a “syconium”, like a sack with a tiny hole at the end through which tiny, tiny wasps, called “fig wasps” crawl inside. Those are the females of the species. The males come to life within this syconium and seek out the females and fertilise them. In doing so, the tiny flowers inside this sack get fertilised as well. The female somehow gets out again leaving a dead male behind. Thus the male never gets to see daylight at all as it comes to life within the syconium and than dies after producing offspring. His body becomes part of the mush after a bit of hydrolysis. Those wasps are so small that they can literally crawl through the eye of a needle. They live in perfect symbiosis with this amazing plant.

If you want to satisfy your curiosity there are many articles on the net covering a lot more information and history surrounding this plant and it's all really very interesting.    

I spent some time in the sun making a drawing of a nice looking branch. From the sketch I chose the part I wanted to make a print of. It was transferred to a sheet of 6 mm course linoleum which had to be sanded down to obtain a smooth surface.

The sketch and what I chose to be the print

After that the cutting. Being mid summer and in the South of France it was seriously hot. During the day it would get up to 41 degrees C in the atelier, thus I did most of the work during the late evening.

Working in the evening during the summer heat

With a very sharp gouge it was a joy to cut, following the veining of the leaves. Actually I thought the block looked nice in its own right.

Cutting of the block

Finally the block was cut. I mounted it beforehand on a sheet of 6 mm MDF and varnished it to protect it  from water while wet sanding it. Now it was time to ink it. I used a water soluble printing ink for it which can be used for intaglio and relief printing. I thought of giving it a try. That actually worked like a charm especially when it came to cleaning up. Fantastic not having to use mineral turpentine etc.

Inking

After that on the printer. Having the sheet of linoleum sitting proud on the MDF, I made a surround of just 1 mm thinner than the lino which could be removed when inking.

On the press

Et voila. Just needed to make couple of proofs and straight away nice rich black prints without the problems normally encountered printing large black areas.

Pulled print

Using this ink worked so well that I used it on an earlier carved block. It made for a satisfying evening of printing with good results.

Days result

Finally the prints needed drying. I made an impromptu drying rack of slats and sheets of anything laying around to leave the prints to dry for two weeks before touching them.

Drying prints

Pétanque

print

Pétanque is one of the favourite pastimes of the people in France.

Pétanque (French pronunciation: [petɑ̃k]) is a form of boules where the goal is, while standing inside a starting circle with both feet on the ground, to throw hollow metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball called a cochonnet (literally "piglet") or jack. It is also sometimes called a bouchon (literally "cork") or le petit ("the small one"). The game is normally played on hard dirt or gravel, but can also be played on grass, sand or other surfaces. Similar games are bocce and bowls.

The current form of the game originated in 1907 in La Ciotat, in Provence, in southern France. The English and French name pétanque comes from la petanca [peˈtaŋkɔ] in the Provençal dialect of the Occitan language, deriving from the expression pès tancats [ˈpɛ taŋˈka], meaning "feet together"[1] or more exactly "feet anchored".

This is an excerpt of an article in Wikipedia. For the full article, follow this link .

pétanque in Dinan

With a bit of fantasy you could call this the equivalent of bowls in its various forms in the Anglo saxon world, but it is not really. From what I have seen it seems that every male infant after having seen first light and drunk some milk is whispered into his ear “one day, sometime, some place you will play the game” Apparently 14 percent of female infants received this message too.

cochonette lost in the drain

Anywhere in France you could drive through a town or little village and all you have to do is to look for a shady spot under some plane- or chestnut trees in a quiet corner away from cars, cycles and other disturbing influences and you will find a group of people playing the game. And it is not just the older men playing it, but also the young ones and even children and what’s more, they are playing it together. They will turn up practically every day weather permitting and while away the afternoon socialising.

wet sanding

This is a lino print. The block is 6mm course linoleum 50 x 50 cm which is also the image size. I used Charbonnel noir douce oil based ink for printing. The paper used is Arches antique white. On the photos you can see the preparation of the block. Gluing it to an 80 x 80 cm sheet of MDF, varnishing around it, sanding and wet sanding before drawing the image (lightly) and cutting it.

image on the block

design detail

cutting

While printing it I build the surround up with corrugated cardboard and 3 mm MDF to prevent damage to the paper, help the roller of the press to ease on to the sandwich made of several sheets of stiff and soft paper, soft foam from a camping mat.

inking

MDF with registration marks

sandwichprint detail

All images other than those in the referred Wiki article are strictly copyright to ACW ten Broek

Minami Sanriku Tragedy

Proof to check all elements are correct

Last March after the tsunami struck the East-coast of Japan, the whole world could see how the tragedy unfolded via TV networks and the internet.

Videos showed the sheer enormity, speed and immense force of the mass of water which swept through the townships and villages on a scale to which this man made world had no hope standing up to.

All we could do from where we were was just watch in awe at the power of the water, in disbelief at the destruction it caused and just be very, very quiet.

This print was inspired by a video made by someone overlooking the township of Minami Sanriku - there were several shot from that particular vantage point.

The sea came in, clawing through the nearby streets and houses. Beyond there was just a moving mass of destruction and death. From between those houses emerged some people trying to run uphill and to safety.

One person was ambling along at the foot of the hill seemingly oblivious to the proximity of the water, or perhaps oblivious to the speed at which it was rushing. The people who were recording the event started shouting as if to urge him on to “run, RUN!!!”

Seeing it on a big screen felt like being there and we also called out “run, RUN” even though the event was already past. All of a sudden this one person became the focus of the whole scene and embodied for me the humanity of it all.

Minami Sanriku was once a beautiful little town of around 17,000 people. Many people made a living from fishing. Percentage-wise it was one of the hardest hit places along that coast. An estimated 10,000 people lost their lives there. As one of the local schools was on higher ground a lot of children were orphaned, losing probably not just their parents but all their extended families as well. If you look on Google Earth Minami Sanriku is now just a scar.

Original design

MDF board with registration

For the key block I used linoleum. Around it a reasonable size piece of MDF of 5mm and having the registration kento on it. You can see I adjusted it for another size of paper.

Cardboard before placing MDF with registration

inking

Rubber camping mat works perfectly

The colour block is a piece of pine riddled with woodworm tunnelling. I liked it. As the pine used for the colour block was about 25mm thick I slotted into a piece of 20mm MDF, on top a frame of cardboard to support the same piece of MDF with the registration used for the lino block thus ensuring perfect registration. Also because this registration board was removable I could use the brayer without the chance of smudges getting on the paper when printing.

Once the paper was placed it was topped with heavy cardboard as I was printing relief and a piece of rubber cut from a cheap mat normally used to sleep on for camping and trekking enthusiasts. This is to even out any possible irregularities and ensure equal pressure everywhere.

Printing in progress

For the paper I used 300 grams Canson aquarelle paper. For the inks Charbonnel etching ink.

This print is made in participation with a fundraising project of the Baren Forum and the Portland Japanese Garden in Portland Oregon. All proceeds will go to the Tsunami relief funds.

A New Adventure: Sermon on the Mountain

This is a woodcut which may take a long time to make. The paper is Kochi-shi unbleached mulberry fibre, rather coarse. For the main four blocks I have used 'Hoop pine' and 'Poplar' ply.

carving the key block

this is the block used for shading

Many, many years ago, buildings were finished off using the simplest of elements and materials to hand, and for the mostpart, those simple finishes proved to be the most appropriate against the harsh weather conditions.

With that in mind I’m experimenting with the colours on this print by using white lime and iron oxide, straight from the shelves of the building supply store, normally used for rendering and white washing. I wondered how much the lime would absorb the other inks and how well it would print. I haven’t used any binding agents. So far so good.

a clean up after the winter and into printing again

lime, sumi, iron oxide and etching ink

For shading I use sumi ink and for the key block a matt black oil based etching ink. Right through, depending on the block, I will use either a baren or an etching press.

the one and only proof so far

The photos are of the blocks and the one proof made so far (very rough and impatiently).

detail of proof

Every single section in the vaulting will be overprinted depicting various scenes of the past. The fabric of the building is not just stone, mud and lime.

curved plank of solid beech sitting on its edge

For those detailed blocks I found a nice plank of beech, which incidentally, was used in the early days of printing as the preferred material for cutting blocks in Europe.

sack and massacre of Beziers and sack of Acre

Montsegur and Bartholomew Night

One section of vaulting will be printed using a combination of set type and calligraphy and miniature painting for a capital letter. Another section will be an icon in gold.

The plan is to make at least ten prints with those blocks. What’s more, I hope to do it before the end of the year. Watch this space...

You've been watching for a long time. We now live in January 2018. Time flies. 

The blocks have been cut.

And proofed.

Additional blocks were cut on linoleum with references to more recent outrages.

Employed letter type to add text to a section of this print.

Ready to print.

Text printed and the first capital hand painted

The completed print.

Background of the print “To Ponder”: Instead of calling this print as I intended "Sermon on the Mountain" I thought it was a matter "To Ponder"

Inspiration for this print was a section of the ruins of the medieval abbey of Villelongue, north west of Carcassonne.

Thousands of years ago there were many unexplained things happening which people explained by weaving stories which became myths. Over time those myths morphed into beliefs and into doctrines. While the story progressed some people put another spin on those beliefs. Tolerance allowed beliefs to exist side by side, but our tolerance appears to have completely dwindled, despite ready access to literature and internet.

The edifice represents a part of this region’s history. What took place then is still happening under our noses except that the scale of the horror in now greater and the methods employed are manifold.

How the print was made:

The print has progressed over the last few years, depending on what I was occupied with at the time, and at a rate which allowed me to research essential elements.

The main “frame”, for want of a better word, is printed using five blocks of poplar ply.

The white background has been done using white lime with a dash of linseed oil.

For the ochre I used iron oxide with rice paste.

The dark shadows and all the black lines are done with “Sumi” and the shadows done in “bokashi” style.

Everything was printed by hand along the lines of the Japanese “Moku Hanga” method.

The meaning:

Two vaults depict the sack of Acre by the Crusaders in their quest to subdue the Muslims; the sack of Beziers and the burning of the Cathars on Mont Ségur during a crusade initiated by the Pope to bring, as he called it, ‘heretics into line’; and a scene of the Bartholomew night when Catharina de Medici dealt with the Protestants.

These scenes were carved on a beech plank, like Albrecht Dührer would have done at the time.

The upper vault depicts more recent history - the outrage of the apartheid era and the current situation in the Middle East.

As such they are represented by a more modern medium of linoleum and a different style of drawing.

The genocide in Armenia, in Rwanda Burundi, in Sréberniça and the camps of the Holocaust during the Second World War.

These names of recent history are written using a pen made of a goose feather quill.

With letter type I printed the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations in Latin. This was based on the first declaration of the United States of America Constitution and the French constitution of 1791. The English and French translations are:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. Ils sont doués de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans un esprit de fraternité.

This is followed by an excerpt of a poem written by Yevgeni Yevtushenko called Babi Yar.

Wild grasses rustle over Babi Yar,

The trees look sternly, as if passing judgement.

Here, silently, all screams, and, hat in hand,

I feel my hair changing shade to gray.

And I myself, like one long soundless scream

Above the thousands of thousands interred,

I'm every old man executed here,

As I am every child murdered here.

Now, more than ever, I believe people should heed the past and not fall prey to populists, megalomaniacs and demented rulers.