New Work! Nuthatch Reduction Linocut

I am so excited that this piece was chosen to be a part of the 23rd Juried Members Exhibition at the Leighton Art Centre. The show runs from February 1st - April 6th, 2025.

​In early winter I started work on this piece, the subject is one that frequents my back yard and always makes me laugh with their acrobatic, upside down moves.

I've been exploring the complexities of reduction linocut, a printmaking process that uses only one block to print many layers. The artist starts with a barely carved block and prints a layer of colour, then carves away more of the block and prints the next colour. This process is repeated until all the layers of colour are printed, leaving very little of the original block behind.

Since the layers are permanently removed from the printing block, the edition of prints is limited to the original printing session. If an error occurs, there is a chance that part or all of the work could be ruined. This piece has more than 7 layers of colour, each layer taking several hours to print all the individual pieces within the edition.

I have printed this work using antique industrial printing presses, also known as “Letterpress Printing” which is a highly specialized artform that requires mechanical and artistic skill. This allowed me to be quite precise in lining up the many layers the application of ink was consistent. As a result, the colours are rich and highly pigmented, almost painterly in quality.

You can find it here in my online shop: http://www.michellewiebe.com/store/p10/Topsy-Turvy.html