Perry Brooks Nichols

“Aguas Piedras” - woodcut on rice paper - 7” x 8-1/2” - 2002. Since the Epson v600 scanner was set up for chronicling pictures of my dad, I figured I would also scan some works on paper which were in my flat files and frame them. This little print was made as part of a series of 3 woodcuts from my transformational SMU-In-Taos experience in the summer of 2002. I would hike a few miles to a beautiful stream up in the Sangre De Christos by the Fort Burgwin Campus, sit and render the currents, eddies and light reflected on the rocks into carved chisel marks on a blackened wood plank. I thought this one ended up looking a bit like a sheep dog, or as my mom said “Snuffalufagus” lol. I had signed this one back in my school days, but felt like adding my monogram signature to it as well, then I framed it into a 11”x15” frame using some small Lineco Archival corners. I scanned it both in 16 bit grayscale and 48-bit color to compare the differences in detail and depth.

I found a framing solution for one my father’s favorite oil paintings, “Old Red Trinity View” from my 2007 art show “Urban Impressions.” The glass in this picture frame had broken a long time ago, so I took a sheet of brick red pastel paper and taped it to the Masonite backing and then used a set of 3” Lineco Archival corners to float the 1/4 sheet of 400lb rough w/c paper on the surface. Normally, I would like for a painting like this to be in a shadowbox frame so the oil paint is behind glass, but this solution serves as a proof of concept that this shade really makes the brilliant red details in the image pop. There are also some detail photos to reveal the vigorous brushwork: scumbling, dragging, wet-in-wet, veils, sgraffito and impasto. While I tried to get very detailed in this series of urban “landscapes,” it was a goal to walk the line between tightness/looseness and perception/impression.