Wood Engraving Wednesday
Beth Krommes is most well known as an award-winning American children’s book illustrator, including the 2009 Caldecott Medal for her work on The House in the Night. She is also, however, an accomplished wood engraver, and today we are presenting two of her engravings -- Jumping Rope and Over the Town -- printed as an insert for her article “An American Fan of Gwenda Morgan” in Matrix 25, Winter 2005, pp. 93-97, which was printed in an edition of 760 copies. Of making wood engravings and the influence of Gwenda Morgan, Krommes writes:
When I get a chance to work on wood-engravings for my own enjoyment, I like to expand on a theme I’ve been pursuing for years -- motherhood and family life. I am much influenced by American folk art, particularly painting. I also love the work of Samuel Palmer, the illustrator and printmaker Wanda Gág, and many wood-engravers, past and present, in particular Gwenda Morgan [here’s a link to our previous posts on work by Morgan]. . . .
My first impression of Gwenda’s engravings are how crisp, bright and sparkling they are. Her textures are so varied ande interesting. The people, animals, trees and houses have so much personality. Her compositions are very clever. Every mark has a purpose and is clean and well-cut. . . . I learn so much from studying these pictures.
Matrix was printed by John and Rosalind Randle at the Whittington Press in England, and is a donation from our friend Jerry Buff.
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