Please come by my booth and say hello at one of these shows in December. I'll be selling prints and I'm bringing printmaking supplies to the Bazaar Bizarre show so attendees can print their own holiday linocut poster.

Saturday, December 3

Bazaar Bizarre Holiday Show

Concourse Exhibition Center (East Hall)

620 Seventh St (at Brannan)

San Francisco, CA

Sunday, December 4

Albany Middle School Arts & Crafts Fair

1259 Brighton Ave, Albany, CA

Saturday, December 10

San Francisco Center for the Book

300 De Haro Street, San Francisco, CA

Facebook Event Page

Thursday, December 15

NightLife at the California Academy of Sciences

55 Music Concourse Dr, Golden Gate Park

San Francisco, CA

Facebook Event Page

11"x14" World Map Linocut Print

Telephone Box Linocut

Having lived in England, and creating this new design as a gift, this edition of ten British linocut prints was a lot of fun. It was an interesting challenge to incorporate someone else's design tastes into a print that still reflected my own "look."

Lake Tahoe Linocut

This is how the Lake Tahoe linocut that I recently posted about turned out after the final colors were printed. It's a reduction print and will be a very small edition (less than 10 prints) after I toss out the misprints.

With two shows in December and a camping trip coming up, I'm happily cranking out several new prints including this 10"x13" ski-themed poster. The first block (sky and mountains) was done in multiple shades of gray and I'm now carving the second block (on the right of the photo), which will be printed on top of the first image with green, blue and black.

It's beautifully sunny outside but I've been looking forward to a full day of printmaking - experimenting with new materials and techniques. So today I'm printing a Tom Killion-inspired Lake Tahoe reduction linocut with several more colors to go after the ink is dry later this week. It took a while for my lino block to get seasoned but after the first ten runs through the press I started getting some nice prints.

Tonight, I'm starting a small Mt. Tamalpais woodcut with a piece of Lauan. Now I'm heading off to get a syringe to hold linseed oil (will that work?) and some more clothing pins for hanging paper. I'm on a roll.

A baren is a handy alternative to my printing press from time to time. Usually I use the back of a spoon or a plastic baren for the job. I use it to burnish the back of the paper to pick up the ink from the linoleum or wood block underneath. For a while, though, I've wanted to make my own based on a design I saw during a Kala Art Institute relief printmaking workshop last year. It fits better in my hand and produces more pressure with less strain. This is how I made mine this week for under $3.

1. Bought two 2.5" diameter wood drawer knobs.

2. Glued them end-to-end with wood glue and clamped them together for 24 hours.

3. Sanded the baren and applied a thin coat of linseed oil to one end (wiping off the excess). This is the end that comes in contact with the back of the paper.

I'll be doing a public printmaking demonstration on Saturday, October 15 (2:00pm to 5:30pm) as part of California Arts Day. Come by the El Cerrito Community Center (7007 Moeser Lane) for the city's "Do-It-Yourself Arts Fair." You can talk to local artists, attend workshops, and watch art demonstrations - best of all, it's free!