Monotype: First Cup

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First Cup 8.5×7 Monotype with watercolor on Arches Hot Press watercolor paper
Process shots start at the bottom of this post
Available on Etsy.
If you’re a coffee or tea drinker, and you find early morning a little challenging, you’ll understand her daydream face and the way she’s cradling that first cup of coffee of the day. This was a fast little portrait to take a break from a larger still life I’m almost finished with… I’ll post it later this week.

After pulling the print on the press bed; this was printed on spritzed & blotted Arches Hot Press watercolor paper (smooth).  Just to see how it would work.  What I got was a loosey-juicey little underpainting, with some groovy texture transferred from the plate to the paper to get me started as soon as it was dry.

 Working with Caran D’Ache crayons and Akua Kolor inks on a beveled plexiglass plate. This was a fast little sketch from a photo taken by my friend VLB early one Sunday morning a few years ago.


Art Quote
Particularly individual is the work of John W. Alexander, whose large picture of Isabella and the Pot of Basil hangs n a prominent place in our gallery. The Munich training of this artist is less conspicuously present than in many others who have made long studies on Germany. There are some of the best qualities developed in France, known particularly and generally misunderstood as “art nouveau”; but a strong personal note dominates all – the use of a singularly happy graduated sweep of line is always an integral part of his compositions. In this particular composition, the low tones of clack and white – the general atmosphere and pallor of death – are carried out with a masterly and almost hypnotic truth to the sentiment of the story which it illustrates. Alexander has a wonderfully developed ability to indicate – without representing accurately; and yet so strongly is the attention centered in the objective points of his pictures, that one does not notice or feel conscious of any part having been slighted. Absolute certainty for his own impression makes it possible for him to lead your eye that you see it as he does. This is the greatest power of an impressionist painter.

Julia DeWolf Addison – The Boston Museum of Fine Arts ~1900

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2 thoughts on “Monotype: First Cup”

  1. Ya Momma,

    That first cup of coffee is a life saver. Beautiful painting. Wonderful mood. I am lucky. On the weekend my husband brings me coffee and the paper in the morning. Heaven.

    xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxBarbara

  2. Your “fast little portrait” is amazing. I know – I drink tea. Beautiful texture and color – but of course what makes it all is the dreamy expression! Wow.

    My god, what would happen if you took your time?! 😉

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