Using a unique blending and layering technique, painter John Gonzalez and I combined greens, reds, purples, blues and yellow hues to create a print from one of his finished drawings. While the goal was to capture the subtle tonal interpretation of the artist’s pencil drawing, “Air”, we also found great satisfaction in using letterpress in a manner that mimicked John’s working style as an oil painter. With successive layers of thin oils John is able in paint to create richly varied colors that stand alone, but also mix optically right on the canvas. Never having worked in a printmaking medium before, John was thrilled to find that the process we chose to create this particular print was a technique familiar to him. The result of this collaboration is a limited-edition print whose process was as much an adventure of discovery, as its surface is a mix of colors that continuously emerges and evolves with each new inspection.
