Robert Kushner, Morning Noon, Night, 2016
27 X 75.75 inches, edition of 30, color lithograph with gold leaf, printed in thirty colors from eighteen plates on white Rives BFK paper. Published by Shark’s Ink.
Two years ago, I painted a huge painting, Camellias and Cacti, on transparent fabric to install at Hakusasonso Kansetsu Museum in Kyoto, Japan.
One year ago, I made a smaller version on canvas which depicted only camellia flowers and branches. Bud and Barbara Shark of Shark’s Ink saw it when visiting my studio last November. We had talked about doing a new print, and Bud immediately suggested working with this entire image. It was a bold and ambitious proposal. It took me a little while to get used to the idea, but I did and so we worked and worked and worked on it this last August at Bud’s studio in Lyons, Colorado. Et voilà, here it is.
We made 18 different litho plates, some of which had as many as three different colors on them. I used tusche, Xerox toner powder, litho crayon, water, salt, sugar, various resists and block outs to create the plates. Proofing and color selection was complex but it all went smoothly. As we got near completion, adding the blocks of deep blue and blue violet, we all got excited at how good it was looking. The last step was the horizontal stripe of 22 K gold leaf and with that, the whole image pulled together and the colors started singing to each other.
Thanks Bud, Barbara, Evan and Roseanne. It was a great and very fulfilling work session. And we now have a lovely print: Morning, Noon, Night.