How I Make a Gel Print
My career began in graphic design and illustration, where I worked on everything from commercial illustration to automotive art and visual design. Along the way, I also pursued the kind of work that was simply for me—painting the rural landscapes, farms, barns and quiet places that have always held my attention.
For many years, oil painting was my primary way of working. I painted large, detailed landscapes, often at 24 × 36 inches or larger. I enjoyed the process of building a painting slowly, paying attention to the details that make a familiar place feel real.
Then life changed direction.
After being diagnosed with an incurable bone marrow cancer, the effects of several years of treatment made painting difficult. For a while, I had to put it aside.
Then I stumbled across gel plate printing.
I was intrigued by the process, but I wasn't particularly interested in making the kind of prints I was seeing online. I wondered if I could use the process in my own way—bringing to it the things I've always been drawn to: rural landscapes, simple compositions, expressive color and those quiet moments that make me slow down.
That's what I'm doing now.
The paintings are smaller than the work I used to make, and the process is very different from oil painting. But I'm finding that I don't need a large canvas or a lot of detail to say what I want to say. Sometimes a field, a tree, a barn and a distant hill are enough.
I'm enjoying making art again. And after all these years, that's a pretty good place to be.