Nuthatch

 

William Seltzer Rice

  1873 - 1963 (biography)

c. 1928  

color block print 

5 7/8 x 7 15/16" image 

pencil, lower right 

fewer than 15 

titled in pencil, lower left 

 

cream wove, attached to a sheet of cream vellum by the artist 

proof 

artist 

19243 

SOLD

As was often the case with Rice's color woodcuts, this impression was trimmed to the black border, glued to a sheet of vellum paper and then signed and titled. Rice used oil base inks in a Japanese method, rubbing the back of the paper with a tool of some kind, perhaps a baren. Unlike water based ink the oil base would began to "Bleed" oil beyond the image, creating a "halo" effect. He would sometimes use white-out to diminish this effect (as would Frances Gearhart). Other times he found it easier to trim the print and attach it to another support, as in this case. We have had two other impressions of "Nuthatch", each completely different in coloring and time of year, this being winter, with snow on the branches.