view additional image 1
View in a Room ArtworkView in a Room Background
The sight of wild grass always makes me think of summer, of wide open spaces. Of fresh air and freedom. Now at a time when most of the world is in self-isolation at home, it is a beautiful escape to make images that evoke vast spaces.

My neighborhood friend who is originally from South Africa let me take some of this grass from her front yard. It is native to her country. At over 4 feet tall, the stems are thick like reeds but don't grow near water. The plant grows in tufts of individual stalks whose lines have a graceful bend when the seed heads grow heavy. This grass has many names, among them Dekriet or Beernabom. ‘Elegia Tectorum’ is the Latin name. 

This round print is a cyanotype, a 19th century method of contact photography. No camera was used. All my hand-stained cyanotypes are unique single edition prints similar to monotypes in printmaking as the plants were laid by hand in a new composition for each exposure to light.There is no negative and also no image etched into a copper plate or carved into a block.

This print is a 14-inch circular piece of 100% cotton acid-free watercolor paper. It comes with a slightly larger 15-inch square white sheet of the same watercolor paper to place behind the round print when framing it.
The sight of wild grass always makes me think of summer, of wide open spaces. Of fresh air and freedom. Now at a time when most of the world is in self-isolation at home, it is a beautiful escape to make images that evoke vast spaces.

My neighborhood friend who is originally from South Africa let me take some of this grass from her front yard. It is native to her country. At over 4 feet tall, the stems are thick like reeds but don't grow near water. The plant grows in tufts of individual stalks whose lines have a graceful bend when the seed heads grow heavy. This grass has many names, among them Dekriet or Beernabom. ‘Elegia Tectorum’ is the Latin name. 

This round print is a cyanotype, a 19th century method of contact photography. No camera was used. All my hand-stained cyanotypes are unique single edition prints similar to monotypes in printmaking as the plants were laid by hand in a new composition for each exposure to light.There is no negative and also no image etched into a copper plate or carved into a block.

This print is a 14-inch circular piece of 100% cotton acid-free watercolor paper. It comes with a slightly larger 15-inch square white sheet of the same watercolor paper to place behind the round print when framing it.
The sight of wild grass always makes me think of summer, of wide open spaces. Of fresh air and freedom. Now at a time when most of the world is in self-isolation at home, it is a beautiful escape to make images that evoke vast spaces.

My neighborhood friend who is originally from South Africa let me take some of this grass from her front yard. It is native to her country. At over 4 feet tall, the stems are thick like reeds but don't grow near water. The plant grows in tufts of individual stalks whose lines have a graceful bend when the seed heads grow heavy. This grass has many names, among them Dekriet or Beernabom. ‘Elegia Tectorum’ is the Latin name. 

This round print is a cyanotype, a 19th century method of contact photography. No camera was used. All my hand-stained cyanotypes are unique single edition prints similar to monotypes in printmaking as the plants were laid by hand in a new composition for each exposure to light.There is no negative and also no image etched into a copper plate or carved into a block.

This print is a 14-inch circular piece of 100% cotton acid-free watercolor paper. It comes with a slightly larger 15-inch square white sheet of the same watercolor paper to place behind the round print when framing it.
279 Views
18

VIEW IN MY ROOM

South African Grass - Limited Edition of 1 Photograph

Christine So

United States

Photography, Monotype on Paper

Size: 14 W x 14 H x 0.1 D in

Ships in a Box

info-circle
$200USD

check Shipping included

check 14-day satisfaction guarantee

info-circle
Primary imagePrimary imagePrimary imagePrimary imagePrimary image Trustpilot Score
279 Views
18

Artist Recognition

link - Showed at the The Other Art Fair

Showed at the The Other Art Fair

link - Artist featured in a collection

Artist featured in a collection

About The Artwork

The sight of wild grass always makes me think of summer, of wide open spaces. Of fresh air and freedom. Now at a time when most of the world is in self-isolation at home, it is a beautiful escape to make images that evoke vast spaces. My neighborhood friend who is originally from South Africa let me take some of this grass from her front yard. It is native to her country. At over 4 feet tall, the stems are thick like reeds but don't grow near water. The plant grows in tufts of individual stalks whose lines have a graceful bend when the seed heads grow heavy. This grass has many names, among them Dekriet or Beernabom. ‘Elegia Tectorum’ is the Latin name. This round print is a cyanotype, a 19th century method of contact photography. No camera was used. All my hand-stained cyanotypes are unique single edition prints similar to monotypes in printmaking as the plants were laid by hand in a new composition for each exposure to light.There is no negative and also no image etched into a copper plate or carved into a block. This print is a 14-inch circular piece of 100% cotton acid-free watercolor paper. It comes with a slightly larger 15-inch square white sheet of the same watercolor paper to place behind the round print when framing it.

Details & Dimensions

Photography:Monotype on Paper

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:14 W x 14 H x 0.1 D in

Shipping & Returns

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.

I live in the woods in northern California looking out across the San Francisco Bay towards the hills of Marin, San Francisco and Angel Island. The distant blue hills of my “Faraway Hills” series are ever-present fixtures in my real life. Down below is the bay and above is an endless web of tree branches. Their silhouettes have etched themselves into my memory. My paintings and prints are always nature-inspired and nearly always monochromatic. Having spent a decade as a printmaker making woodcuts, linocuts, etchings, aquatints and monotypes, my mind works in monochrome. I focus on a single color, composition, positive and negative space, pattern, lines and shape. I currently work in two mediums, acrylic painting and cyanotypes, a form of camera-less photography. Cyanotypes are a 19th century form of lensless photography also known as photograms, blueprints and sun prints. They resemble block prints or etchings but use no ink nor printing press. Light “etches” the image on paper I had painted with light-sensitive chemicals. MY NEWEST SERIES OF ABSTRACT CYANOTYPES: My technique is a form of experimental photography, much like the action painters Morris Louis, who poured his veil paintings, or Jackson Pollock who dripped and drizzled his. My abstract cyanotypes are luminous like watercolor paintings but are actually photographs. Each is a multiple-exposure lensless photograph make through deliberate movements of the light-sensitive paper during exposure to light. 

Different sections of the paper were exposed to light for a longer or shorter time, yielding multiple shades of blue. Each abstract cyanotype is entirely unique. These same lines, shapes and shades of blue cannot be recreated as the exposure of the paper was heavily manipulated by me during each printing.

 A traditional single-exposure cyanotype yields a white silhouette against a dark blue background. But instead of creating a white image by blocking light with solid objects on the light-sensitive paper, I used water to block the light, creating subtle gradations of darkening blue as I submerged the light-sensitive paper for different carefully timed exposures under water, turning, bending and lifting the paper as needed to shape the lines before they become permanently etched by the sun’s light. My botanical cyanotypes are each unique monotypes as well. They are slow camera-less photographs made outdoors using natural light and no film negative.

Artist Recognition

Showed at the The Other Art Fair

Handpicked to show at The Other Art Fair presented by Saatchi Art in Los Angeles

Artist featured in a collection

Artist featured by Saatchi Art in a collection

Thousands Of Five-Star Reviews

We deliver world-class customer service to all of our art buyers.

globe

Global Selection

Explore an unparalleled artwork selection by artists from around the world.

Satisfaction Guaranteed

Our 14-day satisfaction guarantee allows you to buy with confidence.

Support An Artist With Every Purchase

We pay our artists more on every sale than other galleries.

Need More Help?

Enjoy Complimentary Art Advisory Contact Customer Support