DOI issue:
No. 242 (May 1913)
DOI article:Salaman, Malcolm C.: Wood-engraving for colour in Great Britain
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21160#0319
Wood-Engraving for Colour
referred to. The wood he favours is oak, and he
mixes his colours with an infinitesimal quantity ot
oil, in order to get a greater fulness of tone than is
possible, he thinks, with the ordinary method.
He describes his medium as an emulsion, therefore
his prints are practically in water-colour, as their
appearance would suggest. But the most important
matter in which he asserts his independence of the
usual procedure is in dispensing with the black key-
block—and herein is perhaps his most interesting
departure. "I am so profoundly impressed," Mr.
Mackie says, "with the inability of the Western artist
to rival the Eastern colour-printer in the use of the
suggestion of tone along with a key-block, that I
have discarded the key-block entirely, and I rely for
my effects on colour-shapes carefully juxtaposed. I
use seven or eight oak blocks for each print, and do
not limit myself as to the number of times I may lay
the print on each block. Briefly, I might describe
it as an emotional use of the printing-press, differ-
ing from painting only in block-shapes being used
instead of brush marks. One thing," Mr. Mackie
continues, "that has particularly struck me in this
work, in which I have been experimenting for about
fifteen years, is the capital exercise it affords of the
picture-making faculty, since one sees one's picture
grow to completion in such a logical way. No
more perfect exercise, in fact, could be devised for
educating the logical side of an artist, for one has
to plan the whole result from the beginning, when
one chooses one's forces and sequences of the
block colour-shapes, while throughout the printing
one has to be as constantly on the alert as in brush-
painting, perhaps even more so, as any error in
tone is irremediable." The Ducal Palace, Venice,*
is perhaps Mr. Mackie's most sumptuous print,
rich in colour and design, and amply suggestive of
the live character of Venice; nor is The Palace
Gardens, Venice, less happy in this respect, while it
has maybe more subtle charm of atmosphere.
Perhaps my own favourite of Mr. Mackie's prints
is The Return of the Flock, a pastoral scene of most
engaging originality. Mr. Mackie conceives his
subjects with a painter's mind, and a Western
painter at that; he certainly does not think in
Oriental conventions.
Lady Disdainful has been chosen to represent
the bold and striking colour-prints of Mr. Edmondo
Lucchesi, in which the chief aim is simplicity of
design with its contrasts of black masses and well-
balanced surfaces of the toned paper, relieved here
and there with colour. In Lady Disdainful the
colours, other than the bunch of violets in the
lady's dress, and her red hair, centre in the
kakemono on the wall—the blue of the water, and
the red, purple and green of the water-fowl. Mr.
* We hope to publish a colour reproduction of this
print at an early date. —The Editor.
referred to. The wood he favours is oak, and he
mixes his colours with an infinitesimal quantity ot
oil, in order to get a greater fulness of tone than is
possible, he thinks, with the ordinary method.
He describes his medium as an emulsion, therefore
his prints are practically in water-colour, as their
appearance would suggest. But the most important
matter in which he asserts his independence of the
usual procedure is in dispensing with the black key-
block—and herein is perhaps his most interesting
departure. "I am so profoundly impressed," Mr.
Mackie says, "with the inability of the Western artist
to rival the Eastern colour-printer in the use of the
suggestion of tone along with a key-block, that I
have discarded the key-block entirely, and I rely for
my effects on colour-shapes carefully juxtaposed. I
use seven or eight oak blocks for each print, and do
not limit myself as to the number of times I may lay
the print on each block. Briefly, I might describe
it as an emotional use of the printing-press, differ-
ing from painting only in block-shapes being used
instead of brush marks. One thing," Mr. Mackie
continues, "that has particularly struck me in this
work, in which I have been experimenting for about
fifteen years, is the capital exercise it affords of the
picture-making faculty, since one sees one's picture
grow to completion in such a logical way. No
more perfect exercise, in fact, could be devised for
educating the logical side of an artist, for one has
to plan the whole result from the beginning, when
one chooses one's forces and sequences of the
block colour-shapes, while throughout the printing
one has to be as constantly on the alert as in brush-
painting, perhaps even more so, as any error in
tone is irremediable." The Ducal Palace, Venice,*
is perhaps Mr. Mackie's most sumptuous print,
rich in colour and design, and amply suggestive of
the live character of Venice; nor is The Palace
Gardens, Venice, less happy in this respect, while it
has maybe more subtle charm of atmosphere.
Perhaps my own favourite of Mr. Mackie's prints
is The Return of the Flock, a pastoral scene of most
engaging originality. Mr. Mackie conceives his
subjects with a painter's mind, and a Western
painter at that; he certainly does not think in
Oriental conventions.
Lady Disdainful has been chosen to represent
the bold and striking colour-prints of Mr. Edmondo
Lucchesi, in which the chief aim is simplicity of
design with its contrasts of black masses and well-
balanced surfaces of the toned paper, relieved here
and there with colour. In Lady Disdainful the
colours, other than the bunch of violets in the
lady's dress, and her red hair, centre in the
kakemono on the wall—the blue of the water, and
the red, purple and green of the water-fowl. Mr.
* We hope to publish a colour reproduction of this
print at an early date. —The Editor.