Kai Lin Art
proudly presents
The Art of Dale Clifford & Relief Prints
To create a relief print, Dale Clifford makes a drawing on a suitable surface – such as a wooden block or piece of linoleum – and then cuts away all the space around it, leaving the drawn areas raised, or in ‘relief’. Ink is applied to the surface with a roller and then transferred onto paper either by passing the block through a press or rubbing it by hand. Since the cutaway areas do not take the ink, they appear white on the printed image.
Relief Prints are characterized by bold dark-light contrasts. The primary relief techniques are woodcut, wood engraving, and linocut.
Woodcut is the earliest and most enduring print technique. While woodcuts were first seen in ninth-century China, they first became popular in the West in the 13th century and reached the height of their popularity in the 15th and 16th centuries. Some of the most important works by the great German Renaissance artist, Albrecht Durer, are woodcuts. This print technique was revived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, most notably by the German Expressionists, who enjoyed its simplicity and directness.
Wood Engraving is an extremely fine form of woodcutting, using blocks made from the end-grain of the wood, which affords great precision and detail.
Linocut is essentially the same process as woodcut, the only difference being that linoleum is softer and easier to carve. Picasso, frustrated with the inconsistency of wood, began using the linoleum off his floor as early as 1939. But it was from the mid-50s that linocuts became an important part of his print production, as he imitated the bold designs and bright colors of the posters produced for the local bullfights near his home in the South of France.
For more on Dale please click on this link.
The Informant Linoleum and Ink Original hand-carved block
The Informant Linoleum and Ink Original hand-carved block