Cynthia St. Charles Store

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Gelatin Plate Print - Red Wing Blackbird



Red Wing Blackbirds are a welcome sight in the fields and pastures east of town. They can be spotted clinging to tall grasses, cattails, and corn stalks. I enjoy watching for them as I drive the highway between Billings and Bozeman. I screen printed these blackbirds several months ago for another project. They didn't really work out, so I have had a little box of blackbirds sitting on the studio table for about 6 months.


This morning, I had a flash of inspiration when the blackbirds caught my eye. I had not yet tried them with my gelatin plate prints of grass (done several years ago and languishing in a box under the ironing table0. I was happy with what I saw as I put the two together and I knew what I would do today! I just love those incidents of spontaneous creative thought when things just come together.

This is another instance in which I did not have the perfect binding - so I created one by block printing a hand dyed fat quarter, then overpainting it to achieve a good color match.

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