Sherborn Woods

Gordon Louis Mortensen

This vivid autumnal scene captures the brilliant golden fall colors and cool shadows along a pathway in the Town Forest of Sherborn, Massachusetts. According to the website for Sherborn, the town has about 1,000 acres of public-access land, about half of which is Town Forest. The land is mostly wooded and consists of a series of parcels running in a crescent belt from the Charles River in the southeast to the near the Framingham border in the northwest. The public has free access to all parts of the forest and numerous trails are available for walking or riding.

"Sherborn Woods" is a large composition for this exacting reductive medium, sometimes called a "suicide print" because there is no going back as the block disappears. This image is 22 x 30 inches, and required 27 separate press runs to create the 28 colors used.

Gordon Mortensen commented on the reduction process he uses: "Only one woodblock is used. On it an image is drawn in India ink. Before the first color is printed, any areas that are to remain unprinted (white or the color of the paper) are cut away from the surface of the block. Then an oil base ink is used to print the first color on all of the sheets of paper that are to be used for the edition and proofs. After the first printing the block is again cut, removing any surface of the block that is to remain of the first color in the finished print. After each subsequent color is printed, the block is cut again, the process continues until the print is finished, and most of surface of the block is cut away."