Montagne de Tabe

wood plate carving

printing the first block

printing the red seal on the final print

 Moku Hanga woodblock print. Sumi ink on Awagami Shiramine paper.
This print is inspired from the following sketch done at the break of day in the Pyrenees.

Bon An 2023

Bon An 2023
あけましておめでとうございます

The woodblock print that I make every year on the first days on January has become a ritual.

It is inspired by a sketch done at the top of Pic de Crabère during the Pass'Aran trek in the Pyrenees last august. 

This is a good way to restart a new printmaking year.

And this small print in a combination of all the things I love: mountains, sketching and woodblock printmaking.

L'estampe que j'imprime chaque année au début du mois de janvier est devenu un rituel.

Elle est inspirée d'un croquis fait au sommet du Pic de Crabère pendant le trek pyrénéen Pass'Aran en août dernier.

C'est une bonne façon de recommencer l'année en gravure.

Et cette petite gravure est une combinaison de toutes les choses que j'aime : la montagne, le croquis et l'estampe.

Bon An 2022

 

Bon An 2022
あけましておめでとうございます
Estampe sur bois - Moku Hanga
aquarelle sur papier japonais Kochi Roll
Le massif du Néouvielle vu de Luz-Ardiden d'après un croquis réalisé sur place en août 2022

Bon an 2021

あけましておめでとうございます

 
Like every single year, I did a special woodblock print  for the new year greeting card.
This print is inspired by a sketch I did during a hike, last summer, in the Pyrenees. This represents the cairns at the top of Pic de Maubermé, a 2880m high peak located between Couserans (Ariège-France) and Val d'Aran (Catalonia-Spain).
I just add a Japanese stamp for wishing you a better 2021 year.

Comme tous les ans j'ai fait une estampe spéciale en guise de carte de vœux de nouvel an.
Cette gravure sur bois est inspirée par un croquis réalisé pendant une des randonnées pyrénéennes de l'été dernier. Elle représente les cairns au sommet du Pic de Maubermé, à 2880m d'altitude entre le Couserans (Ariège-France) et le Val d'Aran (Catalogne-Spain).
J'ai simplement ajouté un tampon japonais pour vous souhaiter une meilleure année 2021.

Croquis - original - sketch

La Couronne Impériale クラウン インペリアル

"La Couronne Impériale" is inspired by a sketch I made from this series of 4000m peaks in the Swiss Alps in autumn 2017.
The four blocks of this woodcut were carved long before my trip to Japan.
Back home, I found it very interesting to print it. I could benefit from the addition of new knowledge about the printing process. And, not a slight advantage, I had no carving work to do.

The first thing I realized rather than learned in Japan is to make several passes of the same block to intensify a color or a gradient, or simply to correct the badly printed areas. In the example above, I intensify the smooth gradient (kata bokashi 片暈し) with a second pass with a straight line gradient at the top (Itchi Moji Bokachi 一文字暈し).

This first block was used another time to print the orange and yellow trees.

The second block was for the greens.

And was also printed twice in order to darken the foreground sap trees.

The third block is a mauve mountains skyline gradient. Just notice that it covers the light green forest on the slope of the mountain.

This looks obvious on these two pictures on the back of the sheet.

The fourth and last block is a kind of key block.

  It is a multicolor block that needed several passes to control everything.

This print is an edition of 8, used Holbein Watercolors and Kochi Roll paper.
Given that I printed this woodcut after my trip to Japan at the fall 2019, I signed my name in Katakana for the first time.

Sunrise on Mount Fuji

Fuji San - Bon An 2020

This year, to follow the tradition of the New Year's greeting card dear to printermakers, I could not avoid including a view of Mount Fuji that I had in front of me for 5 weeks.

This was also my first attempt of woodblock printing at home since the MI-Lab residency in Japan.

 This sunrise on Mount Fuji is a 3 blocks print, postcard size (15x10,5cm). The colors are japanese HansHolbein watercolors printed on Kochi paper.

 The first block is a vertical gradient (kata bokashi) from blue to yellow. I did only one pass.

 The second block is a new kata bokashi from left to right, from burnt sienna to dark purple.

The third block is a layer of shadow. A light purple bokashi that covers almost the entire volcano except the left ridge where the dawn sunlight comes from.

I must admit that the traditional text of the Japanese New Year is a stamp that I brought back from Tokyo.

MI-LAB Moku Hanga Training Program

Ko Umi Park
小海公園

The Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory (MI-LAB) Studio is located on the banks of the Kawaguchi Lake. It hosts several times a year Moku hanga training programs for foreign artists.

MI-Lab Kawaguchiko Studio

I attended to the fall session from October 27th to November 30th 2019 with five other artists. The residency is ideally situated at the foot of Mount Fuji in a traditional Japanese land house.

Fuji San 富士山

Our studious days were punctuated by the sound of the primary school bell, the call of our house keeper Sato San for lunchtime and the fleeting apparitions of Fuji San between the clouds.

Katsuyama middle school students - 勝山中学生

Our teachers were very talented and, whilst teaching us the basics of Moku hanga, they opened doors to infinite fields of graphic experimentation.

The neighbourhood of MI-Lab - 勝山

 Every day we had delicious lunch and dinner from the local catering Samurai

体験食館 侍

Moku Hanga woodblock printing 木版画

 The five weeks of the program passed so quickly. I only made four prints…

富士山

…and didn't even have the time to paint my own thirty-six views of Mount Fuji.

Rencontre des Peintres Montagnards en Dauphiné

Tous les ans au mois de janvier, se tient à Valence la Rencontre des Peintres Montagnards en Dauphiné organisée par le Comité local du Club Alpin. L'exposition, qui prend place cette année encore dans la magnifique salle des Clercs, commence le 19 janvier et s'achève le 3 février. J'y exposerai dans la section "carnettistes" mes derniers croquis en montagne (Dolomites, Pyrénées…)

Dolomites, Italie

Derborence, Suisse

Pico Anayet, Espagne

Orlu, Ariège

et quelques nouvelles estampes comme celle ci-dessous. J'aurai le plaisir d'être présent au vernissage samedi 19 et le lendemain toute la journée. Au plaisir de vous y rencontrer.