“Magnolia Grandiflora”
29.5 x 22″, Etching
A few months ago I had a call from sculptor friend Babette Bloch telling me of a drawing of mine soon coming up at auction. I recognized it as a 1980’s favorite done during a summer’s stay north of San Francisco in Marin where the magnolias grow huge and white and unlike anything I’d ever seen.
I made a series of three drawings of cut blooms set under the brilliant overhead skylight, thinking of them as “Rembrandtesque” flower portraits. They were later exhibited at the Arkansas Arts Center Drawing Annual and then at Staempfli Gallery in New York.
I found that the auction was of the personal collection of Ruth Carter Stevenson, founder of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth—who’d owned it until her passing in 2013.
After bidding and buying it back, I felt it would be an exciting image for a gravure etching—and with the guidance of master printer Lothar Osterburg, created an edition of twenty.
