Iro translates as colour in Japanese. Colour has many different connotations worldwide, in this Mokuhanga or Japanese woodcut print Carol has explored the colour associations in Japanese culture. She has experimented with materials such as colour sumi, watercolours and gouache as well as making her own colour by grinding colourman pigments with gum Arabic. Each circle is printed separately with a different technique such as atenashi bokashi, embossing, reduction and overprinting. The Mokuhanga technique uses water-based pigments and the prints are hand printed with a baren. This lends the prints a more nuanced quality where the woodgrain can subtly show through the layers of paint. In a world increasingly driven by the digital, Carol’s work celebrates a belief in the haptic and analogue. Carol was awarded a residency to study Japanese woodcut in Japan from Japanese sensei and it formed the focus of her MA studies at the Royal College of Art. She teaches Japanese Woodcut in colleges across London notably Morley, City Lit and the Slade. She lectures for the Art Society and has this year published a book “Japanese Woodcut: Traditional Techniques and Contemporary Practice”.
Iro translates as colour in Japanese. Colour has many different connotations worldwide, in this Mokuhanga or Japanese woodcut print Carol has explored the colour associations in Japanese culture. She has experimented with materials such as colour sumi, watercolours and gouache as well as making her own colour by grinding colourman pigments with gum Arabic. Each circle is printed separately with a different technique such as atenashi bokashi, embossing, reduction and overprinting. The Mokuhanga technique uses water-based pigments and the prints are hand printed with a baren. This lends the prints a more nuanced quality where the woodgrain can subtly show through the layers of paint. In a world increasingly driven by the digital, Carol’s work celebrates a belief in the haptic and analogue. Carol was awarded a residency to study Japanese woodcut in Japan from Japanese sensei and it formed the focus of her MA studies at the Royal College of Art. She teaches Japanese Woodcut in colleges across London notably Morley, City Lit and the Slade. She lectures for the Art Society and has this year published a book “Japanese Woodcut: Traditional Techniques and Contemporary Practice”.