Featured Image for September from Fred Montague’s Mountain Bear Ink Studio
This is one of my earliest large renderings from graduate school days— nearly 50 years ago. While doing fieldwork, I came upon a small, intermittent stream and was struck by the composition and texture of the elements of this tiny part of the larger landscape. It was a time of the year when this portion of the creek was dry. What remained were the sticks, stones, leaf fragments, and rootlets just as the water had left them. Although the water was gone, the evidence of its influence remained.
I made some sketches and took some reference photographs. Back in my tiny attic studio I began to lay out the drawing. I had been working with pen-and-ink and soon decided that for my illustrations as a biologist, stippling was the best method to show the detail I desired.
While high resolution in the drawing is the result, a great deal of time is the investment. This is one of the few projects for which I kept a record of my time. When completed, I discovered that I had spent 200 hours making small black dots on white illustration board in order to depict that minute portion of an unnamed creek.
This image has been popular with art collectors ever since it was first offered as a limited edition, signed and numbered photolithograph. The edition size is 200 prints and about 25 are currently available.
“Dry Creekbed” is sold as a matted print. The outside dimensions are 20” x 24” and the mat opening (image size) is 14” x 17”.
Please refer to the “Photolithographs” tab of this website for current price and availability.