WJ Phillips, 1970 Exhibition

York Boat On Lake Winnipeg 1930

Watercolor Woodcut Print

Image Courtesy David Duffin

I first saw the Watercolor Woodcuts of WJ Phillips in 1970 at a traveling exhibition of his work hosted by the Hudson's Bay Company. My cherished handbook with a biographical sketch of Walt has been kept safe in well worn condition.

I thought you might enjoy taking a look at it as it gives some insight into his life and provides a good read about his mastery of the watercolor woodcut print method in the Ukiyo-e Japanese style of printing..

WJ Phillips Show 1970

Visit the Walter J. Phillips Website.

More On Walter J. Phillips

Japanese Watercolor Woodcut Print-Free Ebook

Hirosige Utagawa 1797-1858

100 views of Edo, #35

Image Source Wikimedia Commons Public Domain

I wanted to write again about Japanese Watercolor Woodcut prints because it is one of my favorite forms of art, and it was a complicated process which involved a great deal of craftsmanship as well as artistic talent.

Japanese Prints are a wonderful artform that depicted life in Japan and made art more affordable to the average person. 

While reading about an American woodcut artist, I came across an ebook that was written by F. Morley Fletcher that describes in  great detail the whole process of how to create the watercolor woodcut print from start to finish. There are a number of examples of prints in the book as well as hand drawn illustrations of the many tools and methods that are used.

Although the book was created in 1916, it is well written and very concise with regards to the materials, and the processes the artist must go through in order to complete a series of satisfactory prints. 

You can read the contents of the entire ebook below or you can download the entire book for free from the Gutenberg Project location.

More of my posts about the Watercolor Woodcut
Ukiyo-e The Art of Japanese Woodcut Printmaking
W.J. Phillips Master Of The Watercolor Woodcut

Terry Krysak is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com

Wood Block Printing

Ukiyo-e-The Art of Japanese Woodcut Printmaking

Hokusai Irises
1760-1849
Source Wikimedia-Public Domain

Ukiyo-e means "Floating World" and I have been fascinated with this form of artistic expression since about 1969 when I saw a reproduction of a Japanese Print that my art teacher in high school showed me.

During this period a number of Japanese artists started print making using blocks of cherry wood which are turned into engraving plates by removing excess wood with small knives, and utilizing one single woodblock for each color to be printed.

Step 1 is to create a detailed line drawing, carve that out into a block of cherry wood, and then print that line drawing as many as 100-150 times. W.J. Phillips in his book mentioned that he was able to get a maximum of 150 prints before the block would degrade from the process.

The watercolor paper is kept wet with water during the printing process. The wet paper is laid on top of the block, after the colored pigment (watercolor) is painted on the block. The back of the paper is then rubbed with a block of wood wrapped in leaves. Each impression is then stacked in a pile wet, with newspaper in between each layer.

There can be as many as 10 colors in each print, meaning that there have to be 10 blocks, so the printing process is a long and arduous one.

However the Japanese discovered a beautiful way to expand their markets by providing limited editions of watercolor paintings. In essence they are not necessarily exactly the same because each wash that is applied can have it's own subtle difference from print to print.

Here are some Ukiyo-e resources that you may find interesting.

A guide to Ukiyo-e websites
Ukiyo-e Wikipedia
Empty Easel-A Brief History of Japanese Artprints
The Woodblock Prints Of Ando Hiroshige