We’ve had our first snow of the season (more than just flurries, anyway), so here’s a block print to celebrate. This one is by Abigail Rorer (USA, b. 1949) and is interesting in having a completely white foreground. This is interesting firstly for the composition of making nearly half the piece simply empty white, and turning that negative space into the positive snow. It’s also interesting because this is a wood engraving, and since engraving is done with finer tools it’s unusual for them to have so much pure white space instead of fine texture everywhere.
I picked this piece today because of the beautifully detailed, snow-glazed branches all across the top. Our snow was certainly not deep enough to give us huge areas of pure white, but it did highlight every twig in a filigree of sparkling white, which is one of my very favorite scenes.
[picture: Fresh Snow, wood engraving by Abigail Rorer (Image from The New Leaf Gallery).]
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