Jane Cradock-Watson

Jane Cradock-Watson is a mokuhanga portrait by Andrea G. Artz, drawn from the photographic source material that underpins her print practice. The carving process required for woodblock necessarily reduces the granular detail of a photograph: skin texture, hair, and clothing are simplified into the discrete shapes that a chisel can resolve in cherry or shina plywood. The likeness in this print is therefore both faithful to the original and clearly translated, with the block's grain reading through areas of flat colour. Artz prints her blocks by hand on [washi](/glossary/washi) using a [baren](/glossary/baren), with kentō registration marks ensuring that each colour layer aligns with the next. The result, typical of contemporary mokuhanga portraiture, is an image that records a specific person while making the means of its making visible — a concern Artz extends in her three-dimensional portrait installations, where photographic likeness is folded into sculptural form.