Dry and Dusty Drypoint

I don’t know anything about printmaking.

I really like Kim Westcott’s work though. She uses a drypoint technique. My wiki understanding of the technique is that you are able to achieve a lovely soft, blurry or hazy effect as the chisel is a sharp point rather than a v-shaped chisel. The sharp point creates a rough burr at the edge of each line which gradually lessens as you print so you can only print 10 or so editions. See more of Kim’s work. I particularly like some of the black and white work.

Westcott says she sticks with drypoint because she still doesn’t fully understand its parameters. The ways she is persevering with this one technique is very special. Pushing to understand and evolve. Magical complex layered printing. Perfect for an evolving landscape.

| Kim Westcott, Dusty, 2007, Drypoint |

A beautiful dry and dusty landscape.

Here is a dry and dusty c 750 poem from another landscape painter, Wang Wei, called Suffering from the Heat.

The red sun fills the sky and the earth,
And fiery clouds are packed into hills and mountains.
Grasses and trees are all parched and shriveled;
Rivers and swamps, all utterly dried.
In light white silks I feel that my clothes are heavy;
Under dense trees I grieve that the shade is thin.
My mat of rushes cannot be approached;
My clothes of linen are washed again and again.

I long to escape beyond space and time;
In vast emptiness, dwell alone and apart.
Then long winds from a myriad miles would come;
Rivers and seas would cleanse me of trouble and dirt
Then would I find that my body causes suffering;
Then would I know that my mind is still unawake.
I would suddenly enter the Gate of Pleasant Dew
And be at ease in the clear, cool joy.

Julia Ritson