aquatint

A Christmas tree? Week 12, Day 1

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Looking for something appropriate for this day, I came across this by Helene Bautista. You may remember a somewhat similar print by her that I showed a couple of weeks ago during a brief snowfall with the faint outline of an evergreen in the falling snow. Today’s print shows a more definite tree, with an unobstructed view. The artist creates an unusual and interesting textured, mostly white, background, using the aquatint technique with a sandpaper ground.

A very merry Christmas to all my friends who celebrate, and a happy winter solstice to everyone!

Winter (Aquatint with sandpaper ground, 2019)

It’s snowing! A contemporary printmaker’s falling snow print: week 9, day 7 (Wednesday)

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I had a beautiful springy print picked out, and then it started to snow, and I decided I needed a snow print. Turns out there are tons of prints of fallen snow, on the ground and other surfaces, but very few of snow actually falling. It’s an interesting counterpoint to paintings, of which there are many excellent falling snow examples.

Helene Bautista is from Toulouse, France, and became a print artist around 2012. As a lesser known contemporary printmaker, I was unable to find a whole lot of information about her. No Wikipedia entry! She is fairly prolific, and employs a variety of different techniques, often together in the same print. In addition to this print, she has several other falling snow prints that I may share in the future, as the occasion and mood suit.

Check out her other prints:

https://www.instagram.com/bautistahelene/?hl=en

https://helenebautista.weebly.com/

Do you have any favorite pictures of falling snow? I won’t insist on prints from you, but I’d love to see examples of snow pix you love, whatever the medium.

Hiver (Winter, 2017, etching/drypoint/aquatint)