Fine Art · Hand-Carved · Hand-Printed

Original relief prints from a small mountain studio in British Columbia.

Every print in the Blue Chisel catalogue is drawn, carved into linoleum, and printed by hand in strictly limited editions. No two impressions are ever quite the same.

Woodland Gold — a multi-colour reduction linocut by Kate Goetz
Woodland Gold · reduction linocut · edition of 12
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The process

The relief print process.

A short summary of how the prints you see on this site are made — focused on the landscape prints that make up the largest part of the portfolio.

01 · Sketching

The internal made external.

Each print begins as the fragment of an idea captured in ink with a fountain pen that once belonged to my dad — a brilliant abstract artist. Working in ink keeps my sketches immediate and loose. Details come later.

A sketch in India ink on paper
Rolling ink onto the linoleum block
02 · Colour planning

Working out the colours.

I plan the palette on an iPad in Procreate — each colour on its own layer, moved and played with in transparency — simulating the printing I'll do by hand. A marriage of the traditional and contemporary.

03 · Hands on

The vital part is the hands.

Despite the technology, it's the hands-on aspect that keeps printmaking vital for me: carving out the image, mixing and rolling the ink onto the plate, and spinning the handles of my etching press to pull the bed through.

Kate at her etching press in the studio
Reductive printmaking

One block, no going back.

All the prints shown here are reduction relief prints: a single block of lino prints the entire piece. Each colour is carved and printed separately, the block gradually reduced — the more the print nears completion, the less of the block remains.

A suicide print
"Picasso referred to reduction prints as suicide prints. If you don't like the way a print is turning out, there's no going back. It's either live with it or start over from the beginning."

And yet it's precisely the challenge of this method that I love. For me, each print is an adrenaline rush.

The making of a print

The Colours of New England, layer by layer.

One of the most complex prints I've worked on — involving several masks and selective ink application. What follows is some, but not all, of the stages.

Layers 1 through 3 printed
Layers 1–3

Foundations.

The first three colours laid down, lightest to darkest — the foundation for everything that follows.

Carving the block for layer 4
Layer 4 · Carving

Cutting the block.

Cutting away everything that should stay the previous colour, before the next one is rolled on.

Masking parts of the block for layer 4
Layer 4 · Masking

Selective ink.

Masks hold back ink from areas that need to stay untouched — selective ink application on a single block.

Printing layer 5
Layer 5 · Printing

Through the press.

Running the block through the press, one sheet at a time.

Layer 5 printed
Layer 5 · Printed

Colour settles.

Colour settles onto the paper. Already the block has given up a little more of itself.

Inking the block for layer 6
Layer 6 · Inking

By hand, by roller.

Ink rolled out by hand across what remains of the block.

Layer 6 printed
Layer 6 · Printed

Holding together.

Six colours in. The image is beginning to hold together.

Prints drying
Drying

A pause between layers.

Between every layer, every sheet has to dry before it goes back through the press.

Layer 7 printed
Layer 7 · Printed

Sharpening the structure.

A darker colour sharpens the structure of the composition.

Layer 8 printed
Layer 8 · Printed

Thin islands of paper.

Eight colours down. The lightest areas are now thin islands of untouched paper.

The finished reduction relief print
The finished print

Signed and numbered.

The final darks settle. The block that made it can never make another.

About the artist

Kate Goetz

Welcome. I'm Kate Goetz — the face behind Blue Chisel Studio.

I'm a lifelong artist with a Fine Art degree from the University of British Columbia. Essentially a self-taught printmaker, I've been making reduction relief prints since 2005 and I see no end in sight. I love every aspect of this challenging and rewarding process — one that still offers so much to be discovered.

Much of the inspiration for my work comes from nature: either places I travel through, or my immediate surroundings. I live in a small mountain town in British Columbia, Canada, next door to vast stretches of untamed wilderness.

Along with this, I also draw ideas from the folklore of the Czech Republic, where I was born.

Kate Goetz, printmaker and founder of Blue Chisel Studio
"I love every aspect of this challenging and rewarding process — one that still offers so much to be discovered."
Contact

Get in touch.

For commissions, enquiries about sold-out editions, exhibition requests, and general correspondence — or to be the first to hear about new work.

Direct

Blue Chisel Studio

bluechiselstudio@gmail.com
@kategoetz.bluechiselstudio
British Columbia, Canada

Newsletter

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A quiet, occasional email when new prints come off the press or when editions are about to sell out. No more than a handful a year.

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