A quiet master of colour and wood

Week Twelve is Mauve, Deep Purple, Olive & Peach

Something that’s struck me over the last four years of putting together these #coloricombo posts, is how so many talented female artists studied at the same progressive institutions in the early 20th century. Again and again, I see the numerous Academiés in Paris such as the Julien and Moderne mentioned in biographies with artists often travelling from Australia, New Zealand, the USA and other countries there.

This week’s featured artist is one who studied at a few of them, the American painter, printer and designer Blanche Lazzell (1878–1956).

Born on a West Virginia farm, she enrolled at West Virginia University then moved to New York in 1907 to study at the Art Students League under Kenyon Cox and William Merritt Chase, at the same time that Georgia O’Keeffe was there.

Lazzell’s transformation came in Paris in 1912 where she studied at the Académie Moderne under post-impressionist painters Charles Guérin and David Rosen. She returned to America in 1915, to the artist’s colony of Provincetown which was then a hub of activity for both American and European artists escaping the First World War.

At Provincetown she studied briefly with the printmaker Oliver Chaffee, asking that he teach her the recently developed technique of white-line woodcutting, known as the Provincetown Method. This was based on Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints but instead of multiple blocks, only a single block was used with incised lines separating sections on the block. These would appear white when printed, as visible in this post’s artwork.

As an aside, the Provincetown Method is credited to B.J.O. Nordfeldt. However there were five ‘other artists’ involved who aren’t usually named. They were Juliette Nichols, Ethel Mars, Maude Squire, Ada Gilmore (who married Oliver Chaffee) and Mildred McMillen. They knew each other through their love of woodblock printing and had all met in Paris! The technique had been perfected by them around 1915-16 so whilst Nordfeldt is credited with the invention, the women artists really did all the work.

Lazzell took to white-line woodcuts instantly, seeing them as the perfect medium to transfer everything she had learnt in Paris about colour and composition onto paper. She soon became a central figure in the Provincetown Printers, working out of a converted fish shack on the wharf.

Whilst many of her contemporaries achieved fame, she quietly honed her craft. She lived modestly, hosting teas and working in her incredible garden on the wharf all whilst exhibiting and earning the respect of her fellow artists. Even in her late fifties, she continued learning, studying with Hans Hofmann to explore abstraction.

These days museums and collectors are recognising Lazzell’s talent and her status as an important artist who helped establish Modernism as an American art form.

Read more information about Lazzell here and here. You can watch a lecture about her Lost Studio Garden which includes great photographs of the Provincetown art scene here.

“Star Phlox”, white line colour woodcut, Blanche Lazzell, 1930

Colour Combination

The colours this week are Mauve, Deep Purple, Olive & Peach. Use them along with a contrasting dark and neutral light colour to create an artwork in any medium or style. Know someone who might enjoy a weekly dollop of colour and creativity? Why not share this post with them?

Shapes

Along with the colour prompt I am including some shapes inspired by the artwork which you can download as a PDF and print out to use as you wish

W12 Shapes

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