Seeing Red! David Everett Adds Cardinal to His Southwest Lexicon
Cardinal, chiroscuro woodcut, image 10 x 8 inches, paper 12 3/4 x 14 inches, edition of 20.
Flatbed is excited to announce the publication of David Everett’s most recent woodcut, “Cardinal.” Everett has been creating woodcuts to add to his ongoing series of Southwest animals, and for the past year has focused on birds. Growing up near Beaumont in East Texas, Everett was attentive to the myriad of species to be found in Texas. His woodcuts are faithful to each bird’s descriptive details. Cardinal, his newest woodcut, is a familiar bird to us in Central Texas and its range is broad across the United States. Its color catches our eye, and its loud call arrests our attention. To some indigenous tribes the cardinal, which mates for life, is considered a “matchmaker.”
Fun fact: when Everett brought his carved woodblocks for Cardinal to Flatbed for printing, he worked with Master Printer, Alyssa Ebinger, to mix the cardinal’s red. Ebinger, who is originally from Minnesota, mixed a “cardinal” red ink which according to Everett was the color of the cardinals of the northern states. Our Texas Cardinals’ red is brighter with a tinge of orange. After adjustments to the ink, Ebinger successfully arrived at the Southwestern Cardinal red.
The chiaroscuro woodcut method that Everett used for this print and the others in the series, refers to printing with two carved woodblocks to create a finished image. For Cardinal the “red” block was printed first. Carved areas in the red block reveal the highlights of the image. After the red ink dried, the key block was printed in black over the red. The key block carries all the details of Cardinal, the background, and the full figure of an adult cardinal in the distance.
Cardinal was printed in a limited edition of 20. To learn more and to acquire the print link to CARDINAL stop by Flatbed during gallery hours to see this print and the others in Everett’s series. You can also purchase this and any of the other Everett prints through our online store. We can safely ship this and any of our prints anywhere.