Stones and Water by Eva Pietzcker - Davidson Galleries

Stones and Water addresses a subject central to East Asian landscape painting and print traditions: the relationship between the static and the flowing, often charged with contemplative association. Pietzcker depicts a riverbed, shoreline, or shallow stream, with rounded boulders breaking the surface of moving water. The mokuhanga process is well suited to such imagery: [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations rendered with a damp brush across the block surface produce the soft, wet luminosity of water, while flat-color impressions and grain effects from cherrywood blocks register the weight and texture of stone. Printed on [washi](/glossary/washi) pulled by hand with a [baren](/glossary/baren), each impression carries subtle variations in tone and registration. The print connects Pietzcker's European training in etching and screenprinting, media she worked in before her 2003 study at Nagasawa Art Park, to a tradition of Japanese landscape that often privileges close observation of natural elements over panoramic views. It also reflects her recurring interest in shoreline and water subjects across her bodies of work.