Cloudy Day Marsh Grass II (18 x 24 inch original monotype on paper)

NOTE: It is not possible to buy this individual print and the diptych of the same name, Cloudy Day Marsh Grass Diptych, because this is one of the two in that pair. There are only two in exactly the same shade of greenish gray.

This pale greenish gray is a very difficult color to achieve with the cyanotype antique photographic process. This one is more pale gray than pale green. Although this looks like a screen print or woodcut, it is actually a form of 19th-century lensless photography. The normal color of a cyanotype (blueprint) is dark blue and white. However, this color was made by dramatically altering the ratio of two photo chemicals in the mix before brushing it on the paper.

There was no cameral nor photo negative. Each freshly-cut blade of grass was laid in that position by me by hand. It is a precise and slow-going process composing a picture with hundreds of solid objects, pinning them under glass, and capturing their silhouette with sunlight on paper I had painted with photosensitive chemicals.

This monotype was made with fresh-cut Native Californian wild grass from my garden. The species of tall marsh grass is called Gray Rush or the latin name juncus patens. It is native to Northern California and grows in local wetlands. If not cut back, it it would grow over 4 feet tall.

Every one of my botanical cyanotypes is an entirely unique monotype as the cut plants are laid in that one exact composition only once. There is no copper plate; there is no ink or printing press.