Description

Jackie Battenfield is known for her luminous paintings and prints of natural forces. She is fascinated by the most abstract qualities of landscape–storms, clouds, brushfires, and water ripples.

And in this image her fascination with water and light are clear.

Battenfield told me that this work was the first woodcut print she made in her water series. The black image is cut out of a special Japanese woodblock, removing all the “white” area and leaving a relief that is inked in black. Her aim was to have the black gesture float down through the “layers” of water.  The water was done as a monoprint, so the blue background in every one of Battenfield’s water series is unique. A green Japanese chiri paper is collaged into the middle doing a little push/pull with the underlying blue. Battenfield carved the woodcut for this print in Williamsburg, Virginia.