New Monotypes

River Bend, 2015, monotype, image 6 x 8 inches, 8 1/2 x 11 inches 

These are the two monotypes I completed at the Salmagundi monotype party last week. As always, trying to get two done in less than three hours can be a challenge, not only in speed but also to the imagination. I keep a small sketchbook where I have been doing some thumbnail sketches for these monotypes, but it seems like I'm running out of material.  Trying to come up with imaginary landscapes that work compositionally is not as easy.   

Dusk: Trail at the Edge of the Woods, 2015, monotype, image 8 x 6 inches, paper 11 x 8 1/2 inches

Sometimes things don't work as well as you think, and other times when you least expect it you are surprised by the final product.  This is the case with this print.  I had made a drawing in my sketchbook many months ago, and although I loved the sketch something was keeping me from doing something with it.  I was not sure if it will turn into a painting, or a monotype, or remain as an idea in the book.  As always, at the end of the printing session, when I'm down to the last hour to make one more print, I make quick decisions as to the kind of image I will be working on and the way that I will execute it.  It turns out that my second prints always turn out better than the first, at least this is what I gather from some comments I have received on this specific image.  Time to go back to the sketchbook and do some more sketches for future prints.  The question I ask myself these days, aside from being a painter, can I now call myself a printmaker?