Arizona Gold

Gordon Louis Mortensen

Arizona Gold depicts the dazzling color of spring vegetation found on a high plain within the McDowell Mountains, a range located in Maricopa County, that rise to the east of Scottsdale. Arizona Gold is another example of Mortensen’s mastery of the reduction color woodcut. The multiplicious layering of colors created a breathtaking sweep of this high landscape and the mountains beyond.

To create the subtle gradations of color in this image, Mortensen used a single block and forty-two different colors with thiry-one press runs.

Gordon Mortensen commented on the 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 the first color in the finished print. After each subsequent color is printed, the block is cut, the process continues until the print is finished and most of the surface of the block is cut away."