Field of Poppies (September 2015, 4.25″ x 5.75″, copperplate etching)
California poppies were one of the first flowers I cultivated in my ‘patch’ of garden at my childhood home. They have followed me throughout my moves and now I live in an area renowned for these iconic symbols of Spring, renewal and the rolling hills of California. Though I worked this etching up a couple of years ago, I only editioned a black & white for an exchange at the time. I knew that I wanted it in color at some point and here we are. I used the 2014 Sierra Art Trails to demo this, though I was not happy with the results. Oh, they were fine for demo purposes, but not what I wanted! In the end, the only way I was happy with the print was by adding a mask and using a relief method to ‘roll’ the ink over the flowers after using an a la poupée method to color the plate traditionally.
Red Tail Studios 