| reviews & features | galleries | art museums | schools & universities | other museums | hot links |

Against the grain

Discovering no two leaves are alike

by Leon Nigrosh

MAGNIFICENT! WOODCUTS BY BARBARA PETTER PUTNAM at the Fletcher/Priest Gallery, 5 Pratt Street, through May 29.

It's just black ink on white paper. But Barbara Petter Putnam has the uncanny ability to make us believe that we are looking at a wide variety of botanicals in their natural habitat. By combining her love of nature with her attention to detail and her mastery of the woodblock-printing technique, she has produced a series of large-scale prints that surpasses her fine earlier works.

About 10 years ago, Putnam started making lino-cuts with simple images of modest size. As she became more adept with her cutting tools, she began to increase the size of her finished images. She soon shifted to using planks of wood as her plates because of their rigidity and ability to hold ink better than linoleum. For most of the prints in the current exhibit at Fletcher/Priest Gallery, Putnam has used poplar plywood boards that measure an awesome 24 by 48 inches. What is even more amazing about working with woodblocks this size is that she does her original drawings directly on the boards on site! To get the close-up drawing of Swamp Perennials, Putnam's husband navigated a rowboat through the waters while she sat in the bow holding an ungainly sheet of plywood as she made her large and very detailed drawing.

Back in her studio, she puts in many hours carefully chipping away any wood that is not part of her original sketch. Her deft handling of her gouges and knives makes the finished prints appear to be composed of a series of brush strokes rather than cut marks. To further give each print its unique look, the completed wooden plate is hand inked, and, after the paper is carefully placed, she then transfers the entire image by slowly burnishing the surface with an old wooden spoon. Believe it or not, these monumental works are produced without the aid of a printing press. By using the most basic methods, she has created engaging compositions that require repeated viewings to soak up all they have to offer.

Putnam's vertical two-by-four-foot print Arrowroot is so laden with information that it seems she has made us get on our hands and feet with her for a close-up view. The flowers are in full bloom beneath a forest of grasses, poking through shadows and creating their own shade. The black and white lines and areas produce a visual vibration, appearing as though she has actually sneaked color into the composition. In her same-size horizontal composition, Marching Wind, she uses well-placed areas of solid black to give the appearance of deep perspective. This acts as an anchoring effect, preventing the wind-whipped fronds from becoming uprooted.

Even in her smaller sized, two-by-two-foot panels, such as Challenge, Putnam's apparently random patterns of white and black merge to form intricate floral effects, which simultaneously cast shadows and reflect sunlight in a disarmingly natural manner.

There is only a baker's dozen of Putnam's prints in this exhibition, yet each one is made up of its own special universe. Bold waves of striated Tiger Lilies are illuminated by a bright sky. In her 1994 China, the only print with man-made objects in it, light bends around vases and vines etched with minute detail. Even in her smallest print, Thousand Cranes, which is a mere six by four inches, we can see each sliver of white as it slowly collaborates with others among a web of thin black lines to form a leaning tree with a mournful face hidden in the labyrinth of leaves. Putnam's images are filled with light, shadow, depth, color, and an overriding emotional appeal. But remember, it's just black ink on white paper.

The Fletcher/Priest Gallery is open Wednesdays and Thursdays from noon to 6 p.m. or by appointment. Call 791-5929.