Oh Look a Featured Artist! - Kylie Budge

wallflowers
Originally uploaded by kylie budge

I really want to start featuring other artists more often. I tried to do it as a regular Friday thing, but with my schedule that is hard.

But here is the perfect starting point for me to do better. I had the pleasure to meet woodblock printmaker Kylie Budge through Flickr last year at some point. 2007 was a bit of a blur with the pregnancy and all but she stood out as a great talent. I've blogged about her in the past, but I just have to do it again because this piece is so breathtaking.

I just love how the colors balance each other out and the delicate line work, I would love to see the blocks that make up this print. It is so breathy it would be perfect in my studio. I have a thing for abstracted nature.

Her style of printmaking is different from mine. We both use wood, the same kind even, but that is where the similarities end. While I go the western route at that point with oil based ink rolled up onto the woodblock she goes the eastern direction with watercolors or pure pigment mixed with rice paste brushed onto the block and then printed by hand with a barren instead of a press. This is moku-hanga. It is something I hope to learn myself someday when I can find a class that is being taught closer than Connecticut. It is a laborious process but is so worth it for the translucent colors. Both eastern and western have their own charm.

More of her work, including her current mixed-media pieces can be found here at her etsy shop.