Goings On At The Print Studio November 4

If you follow me on facebook, you may have noticed that I’m not sharing pictures and artwork as much as I used to. I’m trying to get into the habit of sharing my art, projects and photos on my website. Here is a little bit of what has been going on over the last couple of days.

I am working on an art project about US Route 62. On Tuesday, I visited the Josephine Sculpture Garden near Lawrenceburg (more about that in a future post) and Bardstown, KY.

photo of kentucky artist ken swinson in bardstown kentucky
Old Talbott Tavern 1777 – Right On US Route 62

I had never visited Bardstown before, it’s one of Kentucky’s oldest cities, and is also the inspiration for Stephen Foster’s “My Old Kentucky Home”. I think its really cool that Old Washington and Maysville share the same street as this “other” old Kentucky City.

panoramic and colorful photo of my old kentucky home in bardstown kentucky during autumn

I took one of my sketches from visiting My Old Kentucky Home, and have been trying to make a small, notecard sized woodcut from it.

sketch and first step for a my old kentucky home woodcut print

Halfway through the carving, The wood had its own ideas, and the “o” in home splintered.

work in progress of my old kentucky home woodcut by artist ken swinson


I carved the design a second time-starting with the words first, and the “o” in Old broke.

my old kentucky home woodcut by artist ken swinson
Test Proof – My Old Kentucky Home

I decided I was trying to cut too fine details for that particular size, and carved white letters into a black background.

newly carved woodcut print of monkey playing a drum

To balance out the tension of carving something so small and delicate, I followed it with a fun little Monkey playing a drum.

This saturday (November 10, 2018), I am participating in a print sale with the Tiger Lily Press in Cincinnati. I’m carving like a madman, in hopes of carving and printing this large panoramic scene of Over The Rhine in time to have it at the show. Here’s a link to the show, if you want to come, support other printmakers, and see if I was able to make it in time: http://tigerlilypress.org/2018/10/tlp-annual-sale/

woodcut work in progress of over the rhine in cincinnati ohio

My final big accomplishment this week was moving my large press 3 blocks away from my house into it’s new home at the “Log Cabin Print Shop”, which is scheduled to open the first weekend of December as part of Frontier Christmas here in Old Washington. I only had one volunteer to help move the VERY HEAVY PRESS. It took a little bit of engineering to get it to work, but it’s ready to print. I still need to move my tools, drying racks, ink,etc, i hope to have some new prints to show tomorrow or tuesday.

traditional press at the log cabin print shop in Old Washington Kentucky

These little snippets from my studio should pretty much have you up to date with my goings on. The biggest thing I miss from using my website instead of facebook is the feedback, so, if you feel like leaving a comment, I’d love to hear from you! Hope you all have a great week!

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