Print of the Day!! Mon, Jan 29, 2024 is by Gordon L. Mortensen (b. 1938): "Painted Canyon", color reduction woodcut, 1988, 102/130.
Print of the Day!! Monday, January 29, 2024 is by color printmaker Gordon L. Mortensen (b. 1938).
"Painted Canyon" is a relief print, a color reduction woodcut done in 1988. This impression is pencil signed, titled, dated, copyrighted, and editioned "102/130" by the artist in the lower margin, there are an additional 27 various proofs. It was published by C.G. Rein Gallery. The large image measures 28-7/8 x 40 inches. It was printed by the artist using 41 colors and 29 press runs on a sheet of ivory wove Kizuki Hanga paper that measures 30 x 42 inches. Our inventory number for this work is 23378. This now scarce hand-printed reduction color relief by Gordon Louis Mortensen is available from the gallery for purchase.
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A large-format reduction color woodcut of the Painted Canyon valley, situated in Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Billings County, North Dakota. Mortensen captures in vivid detail the colorful layering of rock and sediment that make up what is commonly known as the "Badlands", a snaking complex of canyons carved by the the Little Missouri River. He's chosen a raking morning light that highlights the emerging lavender hues, and the large format allows the viewer to feel transported to the unique landscape.
To create the subtle gradations of color in this image, Mortensen used a single block and forty-one different colors with twenty-nine press runs to complete this composition.
Gordon Mortensen commented on the process he uses:
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"Only one woodblock is used. On it, an image is drawn in India ink. Before the first color is printed, any areas that are to remain unprinted (white or the color of the paper) are cut away from the surface of the block. Then an oil-base ink is used to print the first color on all of the sheets of paper that are to be used for the edition and proofs.
After the first printing, the block is again cut, removing any surface of the block that is to remain the first color in the finished print. After each subsequent color is printed, the block is cut, the process continues until the print is finished and most of the surface of the block is cut away."
Born near Arnegard, North Dakota on April 27, 1938, Gordon Mortensen received his BFA degree with Honors in 1964 from the Minneapolis School of Art (now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design) and he was enrolled in the graduate program at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul between 1969 and 1972. Originally a portrait painter, Mortensen almost entirely abandoned that media for reduction woodcutting, achieving the creative freedom he desired. He is one of the few practicing artists of this method in the United States.?During this transitional time, he taught briefly at the Saint Paul Art Museum, the Rochester Art Center, and the Minnetonka Art Center in Wayzata.
Early in his printmaking career, Mortensen circulated his color woodcuts via exhibitions in the Midwest. His work reached a wider audience in 1976 when he participated in the Brooklyn Museum National Print Exhibition and the following year he joined the Boston Printmakers.
To purchase this work, see other works, or read a biography for Gordon Louis Mortensen use this link to our website: https://www.annexgalleries.com/inventory/artist/1661/Mortensen/Gordon
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