Outer Cape Monotypes

Monotypes, known as “painterly prints”, have been favored by such masters as Edgar Degas. Using one of my own photos as a starting reference, and recalling the feeling of the scene, I paint on plexiglass with small rollers. I often layer colors of the oil-based inks, which tends to create some translucency in the final works. I also make shapes and marks with the rollers and their edges. Given the difference in my tools and methods, my monotypes tend to be looser and more abstract in style than my oils and watercolors. Using a printing press, I make one image on paper. What emerges is to some extent a surprise, as some colors blend and some marks are reshaped. The layers of ink and the sweeping as well as choppy marks of the rollers evoke shifting clouds and sands, and hint at the depths and constant movement in the skies and seas. These works on paper are evocative of the scenes that inspired them – fleeting views of the Outer Cape’s distinct and beautiful landscape.
I also have created white line prints, known as "Provincetown Prints" from where the method originated. Again working from one of my own photo references, I carve white lines in a hard wood block to create an image that I then paint with watercolors, section by section, overlaying each section with watercolor paper and hand rubbing to create the prints.