The Dragonfly Vase (From the Series 'Eight Woodcuts')

Ed Baynard

Baynard's large floral color woodcuts are perhaps best summed up by the publisher, Tyler Graphics, in their catalogue raisonné, page 68: "in 1980 Ed Baynard made eight woodcut prints based on watercolor studies he painted specifically for the project. He traced the watercolor images onto Mylar and transferred them to wood. Work for these editions was divided into five stages, beginning with the artist's selection of the assorted woods - fir, pine, luan plywood, walnut, Russian plywood, and mahogany - for each texture and grain, and with preliminary cutting and carving of each woodblock by the artist, Kenneth Tyler, Roger Campbell, and Lee Funderburg....

Numerous inks were mixed and experimentally applied to the blocks by Campbell, Funderburg, and Tyler. The color mixes and application techniques changed as the artist revised and developed his images during proofing. Baynard, Campbell, Funderburg, and Tyler used assorted inking methods, applying colors dierctly with their fingers and palms, employing small brayers, brushes, and compressed paper stumps for wiping on colorsm and using rollers for blend inking.

Each print was proofed many times before Baynard made his final ink and woodblock corrections. Once the edition standards were established, the woodcuts were inked and printed on handmade Okawara paper by Campbell and Funderburg on a flatbed offset press."