Original relief prints from a small mountain studio in British Columbia.
Every print in the Blue Chisel catalogue is drawn, carved into linoleum, and printed by hand in strictly limited editions. No two impressions are ever quite the same.
Recent prints from the studio
The relief print process.
I could easily talk about my work for hours and tell you all kinds of stories. But, for the sake of brevity, just a short summary of how the relief prints you see on this site are made. I've focused the following on my landscape prints, which currently make up the largest part of my portfolio.
The internal made external.
Each of my prints begins as the fragment of an idea captured by a sketch. The sketch draws on memories of a physical place I experienced and the emotions I felt while there.
I work in India ink, with a fountain pen that once belonged to my dad — a brilliant abstract artist. My dad is gone, but using his pen to sketch out my ideas connects me to him in my mind. Working in ink also keeps my sketches more immediate and loose. Details come later, once I'm ready to trace the sketch to my block of lino.
Working out the colours.
For the colour-planning stage I use my iPad and Procreate. Procreate is invaluable to me because I can draw each colour on a separate layer, move the layers around, and play with transparencies — simulating the actual printing I'll do by hand.
And the contrast between working digitally and the very hands-on process of actually making my reduction prints is something that really appeals to me. It's a perfect marriage of the traditional and contemporary.
The vital part is the hands.
Despite my incorporation of technology into my workflow, it's the hands-on aspect of printmaking that keeps it vital for me: my hands carving out the image for each print, mixing and rolling the ink onto the plate, and spinning the handles of my etching press to pull the press bed through.
One block, no going back.
All the prints shown on this site are reduction relief prints: a single block of lino is used to print the entire print. Each layer / colour is carved and printed separately, sections of the block gradually carved away — or reduced — prior to the printing of each new layer. Ultimately, the more the print nears completion, the less of the block remains.
It takes a lot of planning to decide on the order in which specific sections of each print will be printed.
"Picasso referred to reduction prints as suicide prints. If you don't like the way a print is turning out, there's no going back. It's either live with it or start over from the beginning."
And yet it's precisely the challenge of this method that I — and the other printmakers who make reduction prints — love. For me, each print is an adrenaline rush.
The Colours of New England, layer by layer.
To give you a clearer idea of the reductive print process, the images below show some — but not all — of the stages for The Colours of New England. This was one of the most complex and challenging prints I've worked on, and involved the use of several masks and selective ink application.
Kate Goetz
Welcome. I'm Kate Goetz — the face behind Blue Chisel Studio.
I'm a lifelong artist with a Fine Art degree from the University of British Columbia. Essentially a self-taught printmaker, I've been making reduction relief prints since 2005 and I see no end in sight. I love every aspect of this challenging and rewarding process — one that still offers so much to be discovered.
Much of the inspiration for my work comes from nature: either places I travel through, or my immediate surroundings. I live in a small mountain town in British Columbia, Canada, next door to vast stretches of untamed wilderness.
Along with this, I also draw ideas from the folklore of the Czech Republic, where I was born.
"I love every aspect of this challenging and rewarding process — one that still offers so much to be discovered."
Get in touch.
For commissions, enquiries about sold-out editions, exhibition requests, and general correspondence — or to be the first to hear about new work.
Blue Chisel Studio
bluechiselstudio@gmail.com
@kategoetz.bluechiselstudio
British Columbia, Canada
Newsletter
Be the first to see new work.
A quiet, occasional email when new prints come off the press or when editions are about to sell out. No more than a handful a year.