Paul Binnie

Scottish, b. 1967

Black Storm
(Kokuran)

reduction print, with artist's red circular seal at lower right, BINNIE, numbered, titled and signed in pencil on the lower margin, 27/40, Kokuran, Paul Binnie, ca. June 2016

25 5/8 by 12 3/8 in., 65 by 31.4 cm

This composition was produced by reduction woodblock printing, a process that Binnie has recently embraced for his landscape prints allowing him to achieve atmospheric results utilizing a more limited palette than his comparatively complex bijin prints. The process begins with one block, printing the areas of the palest portion of the design, then continuing to carve away to leave the lighter areas in the print working towards the darkest area. The blocks are destroyed in the printing process, and as such, there will never be additional or variant impressions.

Kokuran shows an old windmill in a marshy grassland landscape which is about to be engulfed in a heavy rainstorm. The deep black cloud of the upper area was printed three times with concentrated sumi to make a dense velvety black, against which stripes of silver rain stand out. The lower rain just above the horizon is printed in two colors, blue-grey and blackish purple, to give more depth to the distance. The farthest heavy rain on the left is printed with baren sujizuri (printing with the edge of the baren to create diagonal lines), so each print is slightly different.

price: $700