Monotype Photography

This gray and white Japanese-inspired monotype was made using freshly-cut long-stemmed wild iris (iris douglasiana) that grow along the California coast. Their impossibly long stems ...

Though this unique monotype looks like a woodcut or linocut, it is not. This is a cyanotype, a kind of lensless photography dating back to the 1800s, but the artist altered the ratio...

This is a combination of painting and photography, the antique cyanotype process and the biggest the artist has ever made. The silhouette of the plant was first drawn, then painted not with ink or paint, but with light-sensitive photo emulsion. The blue and white pattern seen in each leaf is a sun print or lensless photograph of tiny plants laid on top of the painted area. The tiny flowers in the pattern across the painted silhouette are of the same species as the larger painted flower. "Cow Parsnip" and "cow parsley" are common names for this giant white native Californian wildflower...

Though this unique monotype looks like a woodcut or linocut, it is not. This is a cyanotype, a kind of lensless photography dating back to the 1800s, but the artist altered the ratio...

Though this may look like a woodcut or screen print, it is a kind of photography. Cyanotypes are a 19th century alternative (cameraless) photographic process. This monotype was print...

Though this may look like a woodcut or screen print, it is a kind of photography. Cyanotypes are a 19th century alternative (cameraless) photographic process. This monotype was print...

The flowers use in this unique monotype are called Coronaria Alba in Latin or by their common name Rose Campion. They grow 2 feet tall with velvety gray-green leaves and white petals...

Though this unique monotype looks like a woodcut or linocut, it is not. This is a cyanotype, a kind of lensless photography dating back to the 1800s. This butter yellow cyanotype sta...

This is the silhouette of wild mugwort (artemisia) or chrysanthemum weed which grows in the woods in northern California. It is a fragrant herb that smells similar to sage. Though t...

This long narrow blue and white monotype was made by carefully arranging hundreds of individual flowers of fresh-cut Dutch clover growing wild. This unique print is the same size as ...

This is an exclusive handprinted unique cyanotype that takes its inspiration from the mid-century modern shapes. It's made by layering paper cutouts and different exposures using uv-...

Unframed. Two 40h x 26w inch monotypes. Signed on the back by the artist. Images of the prints framed are just to give a sense of how much wall they would cover once framed with a...

This is an exclusive handprinted unique cyanotype that takes its inspiration from the mid-century modern shapes. It's made by layering paper cutouts and d...

This is an exclusive handprinted unique cyanotype that takes its inspiration from the mid-century modern shapes. It's made by layering paper cutouts and different exposures using uv-...

This is an exclusive handprinted unique cyanotype that takes its inspiration from the mid-century modern shapes. It's made by layering paper cutouts and different exposures using uv-...

This unique multistep technique is a combination of a painting and a photograph or monotype. Cyanotypes are a kind of alternative photographic process from the 1800s. The chemicals a...

Though this unique monotype looks like a woodcut or linocut, it is not. This is a cyanotype, a kind of lensless photography dating back to the 1800s, but the artist altered the ratio...

Though this unique monotype looks like a woodcut or linocut, it is not. This is a cyanotype, a kind of lensless photography dating back to the 1800s, but the artist altered the ratio...

Barbara Hocker sees her life’s vocation as being an ambassador for the natural world through her art. Nature is facing many challenges right now. Hock...

Barbara Hocker sees her life’s vocation as being an ambassador for the natural world through her art. Nature is facing many challenges right now. Hock...

Though this unique monotype looks like a woodcut or linocut, it is not. This is a cyanotype, a kind of lensless photography dating back to the 1800s, but the artist altered the ratio...

The pale gray-green of this monotype calls to mind the celadon glaze of Japanese pottery. Each was made using freshly-cut long-stemmed wild iris (iris douglasiana) that grow along th...

In her Delft Garden series, artist Christine So first drew the outline of a plant in pencil and then painted it in a dark room —not paint– but with the cyanotype light-sensitive emu...

In her Delft Garden series, artist Christine So first drew the outline of a plant in pencil and then painted it in a dark room —not paint– but with the cyanotype light-sensitive emu...

These are the silhouettes of the native Californian Matilija Poppy also known as giant tree poppies and Coulter's Poppy. They grow over 4 feet tall and appear each year in summer. ...

This unique multistep technique is a combination of a painting and a photograph or monotype. Cyanotypes are a kind of alternative photographic process from the 1800s. The chemicals are different from those used in black and white photography. The light-sensitive chemicals can be used to print blue and white photographs from a large negative or a person can capture the silhouette of solid objects rather like an x-ray in blue and white. In her Delft Garden series, artist Christine So first drew the outline of a plant in pencil and then painted it in a dark room —not paint– but with the cyanotype light-sensitive emulsion. When the painting had dried, she arranged plants on top of the painted silhouette in a pattern that would leave gaps like lace, carefully moved the entire bundle outside while still covered and then exposed the pattern multiple times at different angles to the sun, to achieve various shades of blue and white. The heavy cotton watercolor paper then needed to be thoroughly rinsed in order to stop the darkening process. The silhouette here is of the Giant California Tree...

Harold Town (1924-1990) remains one of the most accomplished and fascinating characters from the "Painters Eleven" group. While Town coined the group's name (based on the number of artists who simply attended their first meeting) his output was diverse, ever-changing and not restricted to painting. Somewhat ironically, Town's first significant body of work, which established his reputation, was a group of monotype - which he called "Single Autographic Prints" Town was introduced to lithography by fellow Painters Eleven member Oscar Cahen...