In last post, I talked about working on monotypes with the subject as the landscape of Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve – one of the spots in the San Francisco Bay, looking from the city of Palo Alto/peninsula towards the eastbay mainland hills across the bay. It is about 10 minutes drive from my home. Having a unique geography, the peninsula separates the Pacific Ocean from the SF-Bay that connects to the ocean through the Golden Gate region up north. As a landscape subject, I find the entire San Francisco Bay Area to be fascinating, along with its flora and fauna.

Last post’s monotypes were about the Bayland views with trees. At that time, I was also planning to do a monotype of the adjacent Duck Pond. I decided to do a larger piece. Working on large pieces of monotypes are hard, but I wanted to challenge myself to double the size of the pieces from what I last made. The above image is of the work that I did. I used a press. It has now dried, so I am able to photograph it. The sheet-size is 30in”x21.5″, which was quite hard to handle while laying out for the press all by myself.

I went for a view of the Duck Pond with the hills as the backdrop, and how it feels just before the rain – a solitary moment waiting a release, as if holding all that weight of the water which is about to break free and fall. All the cloud-weight hovering, waiting to fall as rain – kind of like how we feel about the uncertainty of the pandemic.

Image:
Mitun, Palo Alto Duck Pond at Baylands just before rain, Oil-based printmaking ink and water-based Akua printmaking ink on Arches 88 paper, sheet 30in”x21.5″, Nov-12-2021.

I did a ghost image too, but have not decided on its fate yet.

I also experimented with mixing media in this piece, using together the traditional oil-based printmaking inks with the Akua water-based printmaking inks, and I am pretty happy with the resultant subtle effects of the combination.

During my daily walks throughout the pandemic I have been taking preparatory photos depicting experiences of local landscapes. Next post will be about landscape works from one of these walks – a walk to the neighborhood park.