The woodblock after 7 color runs. There probably will be another 5 color runs before it is complete.The original oil sketch.
Looks cold and, yes, it was
cold that day.

The original oil sketch.
A bit rough but there is enough to
create the woodblock

With the abundance of snow in the mountains this January, the trees were covered with billowing balloons of snow. When I lay in a painting, I look for simplified shapes that will translate well into woodblocks. From one of these oil sketches, I made a drawing on a translucent vellum paper and then transferred it onto two 18x12 mahogany blocks. The first step of the reduction process is to carve the whites away from the block.

In the reduction process, one block is used to create a multiple color print. The lightest color and the broadest area of color is printed first over the entire edition, The same block is then carved away leaving the next lightest color, which is printed over the previous color run. This process of elimination is repeated until the image is complete and the block is mostly carved away. As the artist is continually removing material from the block to print the next color, the block is destroyed in the processes of making the image.

The first seven color runs established a value and temperature progression in the background mountains. The distant sky, the lightest value, is warmer then the successive layers of blue, creating a temperature contrast between the lightest blues. Working from light to dark, the blue layers were warmed as they moved forward in the composition. I then used a second block, printing three color runs, to develop temperature changes in the foreground snow to create the effect of reflected sunlight. I went back to the first block for the final two color runs to accent the darks.