Keith Purser

Rising Water - Abstract Seascape Woodcut Print, Waves and Beach in Blue + Black

2007

Dungeness II Painting by Keith Purser B. 1944 Additional information: Medium: Woodcut Dimensions: 42 x 59.5 cm 16 1/2 x 23 3/8 in Signed and titled. Keith Purser lives and works on...

Jane Skingley b. 1963 Hokusai Ocean Blue I, 2024 mixed media on vintage book pages laid onto canvas 50 x 50 cm 19 3/4 x 19 3/4 in signed verso Jane Skingley paints seascapes and lan...

Goldfish at Dungeness, Woodcut Painting by Keith Purser B. 1944, 2006 Additional information: Medium: Woodcut Dimensions: 32 x 40.5 cm 12 5/8 x 16 in Signed, titled and dated Keith...

Variations on Six (Blue on Black) by Clifford Ellis, 1953 Additional information: Medium: lithograph 85 x 64.5 cm 33 1/2 x 25 3/8 in Clifford Ellis was born in Bognor Regis, West S...

Artist: Michael Mazur, American (1935 - 2009) Title: Wakeby Island Year: circa 1990 Medium: Color woodcut with chine collé, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 15 Image Size: 15 x...

Ann Aspinwall, Alba Gem I, Linocut This hand-pulled linocut by Ann Aspinwall features subtle, rhythmic linework that evokes the meeting of earth and sky. In Alba Gem I, horizontal ba...

"Arroyo" is a woodcut and monotype signed by Carol Summers. The print is a break from the usual bright coloring of Summers' images, though is rendered in his typical style and fields of unmodeled color. A pair of trees stand front and center before an arroyo, a Spanish term for an intermittently dry creek, running out to the ocean. A white sunrise glows in the distance beyond the sea. The playfulness of the image is enhanced by Summers' signature printmaking technique, which allows the ink from the woodblock to seep through the paper, blurring the edges of each form. 14.25 x 14 inches, artwork Numbered from the edition of 120 This print was commissioned by the Madison Print Club, Madison, WI Carol Summers (1925-2016) worked as an artist throughout the second half of the 20th century and into the first years of the next, outliving most of his mid-century modernist peers. Initially trained as a painter, Summers was drawn to color woodcuts around 1950 and it became his specialty thereafter. Over the years he has developed a process and style that is both innovative and readily recognizable. His art is known for its large scale, saturated fields of bold color, semi-abstract treatment of landscapes from around the world, and a luminescent quality achieved through a printmaking process he invented. In a career that has extended over half a century, Summers has hand-pulled approximately 245 woodcuts in editions that have typically run from 25 to 100 in number. His talent was both inherited and learned. Born in 1925 in Kingston, a small town in upstate New York, Summers was raised in nearby Woodstock with his older sister, Mary. His parents were both artists who had met in art school in St. Louis. During the Great Depression, when Carol was growing up, his father supported the family as a medical illustrator until he could return to painting. His mother was a watercolorist and also quite knowledgeable about the different kinds of papers used for various kinds of painting. Many years later, Summers would paint or print on thinly textured paper originally collected by his mother. From 1948 to 1951, Carol Summers trained in the classical fine and studio arts at Bard College and at the Art Students League of New York. He studied painting with Steven Hirsh and printmaking with Louis Schanker. He admired the shapes and colors favored by early modernists Paul Klee (Sw: 1879-1940) and Matt Phillips (Am: b.1927- ). After graduating, Summers quit working as a part-time carpenter and cabinetmaker (which had supported his schooling and living expenses) to focus fulltime on art. That same year, an early abstract, Bridge No. 1 was selected for a Purchase Prize in a competition sponsored by the Brooklyn Museum. In 1952, his work (Cathedral, Construction, and Icarus) was shown for the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in an exhibition of American woodcuts. In 1954, Summers received a grant from the Italian government to study for a year in Italy. Woodcuts completed soon after his arrival there were almost all editions of only 8 to 25 prints, small in size, architectural in content, and black and white in color. The most well-known are Siennese Landscape and Little Landscape, which depicted the area near where he resided. Summers extended this trip three more years, a decision that would have a significant impact on choices of subject matter and color in the coming decade. After returning from Europe, Summers’ images continued to feature historical landmarks and events from Italy as well as from France, Spain, and Greece. However, as evidenced in Aetna’s Dream, Worldwind, and Arch of Triumph...

This contemporary woodcut print on paper evokes the peacefulness of ocean waves depicted in bright, cerulean blue and vibrant cobalt. The woodcut print brings to mind the tradition o...