Midnight Japanese Maple (22 x 32" Original Botanical Cyanotype on paper)

(22 x 32" Original Botanical Cyanotype on paper)

At 22 x 32 inches, this is bigger than most of my botanical cyanotypes I make in the standard 18 x 24” size. This kind of Japanese maple is called “Dancing Peacock” or “Full Moon” maple. Its wide intricate leaves have nine points like a fan of feathers. It grows in my garden.

Though this looks like a woodcut or screen print, it is actually a form of photography. Cyanotypes are a 19th century alternative (cameraless) photographic process. The traditional cyanotypes have a navy blue background with sharp white silhouettes, but this is a double exposure cyanotype meaning that the image was exposed to light twice for varying amounts of time, creating one pale shade of blue and one dark shade of blue. The softness reminds me of twilight or how on a night of a full moon everything is cast in a pale bluish glow.

All my botanical cyanotypes are one-of-kind monotypes. There is no etched copper plate, no carved wood block, no printing press and no ink to be able to reproduce these images. There is no film negative either. Each is a unique, hand-printed lensless photograph made using real plants from my own garden.

Unframed.

Depictions of artwork framed on a wall are solely for the purpose of showing its scale.

Hand-printed on 100% cotton Arches watercolor paper. Ships rolled in a tube.