Designer: Karen Pittman | Publisher: Karen Pittman | Date: 2023

Paper size: 20.5cm by 25.5cm | Enlargement | Currency: $ / £ / €

Price: $ 120.00£ 95.00€ 110.00

Description: Nearly all of the prints in our shop are of the type known as 伝統的木版画 (dentoteki mokuhanga ‘traditional woodblock prints’), so described because they are produced by a team of people (publisher, designer, carver(s), printer(s)). This print is different; it can be described as 創作版画 (sosaku hanga ‘creative prints’), the term used since the early 20th century in Japan for those prints created entirely by one person from conception to finished product.

Given their desire to break with traditions and to be seen as ‘international’, many of the Japanese sosaku artists work in genres other than woodblock (etching, lithograph, etc.) but in recent years an interesting trend has developed - many westerners have begun making prints using the traditional Japanese woodblock methods. They are attracted by the inherent beauty of the materials - the wonderful washi, the transparent water-based pigments - and by the very sophisticated, yet fundamentally simple, tools and techniques. Traditional Japanese printmaking is very much a ‘low-tech’ / ‘high-touch’ medium, and as such is capable of extremely delicate levels of nuance.

Mokuhankan is glad to share space in our shop with a number of these artists, and we hope you will share our enthusiasm for the work they have produced. Japanese woodblock prints don’t have to be all about Mt. Fuji!

Karen Pittman's Note: The Mora River is in New Mexico, USA. My mom, Katherine Pittman, was an accomplished painter, and she had a wonderful visit to that area for sketching and painting. This design is based on a false color watercolor sketch she made of the river. I've taken my own liberties with the line work, the water, and the rocks, but the composition is hers. She is not around any longer to give her blessing to this collaboration, but I don't think she would mind. Thanks Mom!