INDIAN BROOK FALLS X (1995), BY DON NICE
ACQUIRED FROM JERALD MELBERG GALLERY, CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, FEBRUARY 2000
OIL MONOPRINT, 30" BY 22" (PAPER), 17" BY 12" (IMAGE)


Many of Don Nice's more recent works feature views of and around the Hudson River in upstate New York. Indian Brook Falls is just north of Garrison, New York, where Don lives. You can view a page about Indian Brook Falls by clicking here.

This work is a monoprint. A monoprint is created by painting, either with oils, acrylic, or watercolor, on a nonpermeable surface, such as a sheet of glass. Once the painting is complete, but before the paint dries, a sheet of paper is pressed into the painting. The result is the image you see. By its very nature, a monoprint is unique, since the original painting is destroyed when the paper is pressed into it. One result of the monoprint process is that part of the image bleeds through to the back of the work, due to the pressure of the printing press.

I like several things about this work... it uses bold but simple colors, so it's almost like an abstract work. The lack of a defining edge around the image is pretty cool, as well... and the patterns at the bottom of the image remind me a lot of Frank Lloyd Wright's Aztec-inspired wall tiles. The large border of white space around the image really makes it stand out.

Don has created a series of monoprints of Indian Brook Falls... this is the tenth in the series. I've seen a couple of the other works in the series, but this is the one I liked best.

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