The idea of using carved woodblock relief to print multiple images on paper became one of the oldest forms of printmaking in the ninth century in China. Until the Japanese Ukiyo-E artists began their prolific use of color, the block was primarily a black and white medium. There are now many techniques for printing color, one being the reduction block method used by Master woodcut printer June Thomsen.

June Thomsen, born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1959, was introduced to the woodcut print during her five years of study at the Alberta College of Art. Shortly after, she pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Victoria. Her studies led her back to Alberta where she graduated from the University of Calgary with a Master of Fine Arts, her major being Woodcut Prints.

The reduction block method, used by June Thomsen, is a means of creating multicolored prints from one block of wood by a process of elimination. Because each cutting alters the printing image, the artist creates a drawing or painting first in order to visualize the final print image and to plan the cutting accordingly. If there is to be any white in the image, these areas are cut from the block first. The remaining image on the block is then printed, with the first colour, using opaque oil-based ink. An acid free paper is then placed on top of the block and pressure is applied. The paper is then pulled gently from the block. The entire edition must be printed in the first color; the block is re-inked for each sheet of paper. Next the areas that are to remain the first color printed are cut from the wood, and the remainder of the block is printed with a second color. Many times more than one color is printed at each stage; this is done by using small rollers to ink up different areas of the block separately. For printing color editions the print must appear on each sheet in the same place, using a registering device. Thomsen’s large landscapes are usually the result of four different color pulls, each pull taking approximately a month to do.

In many of the artists small black and white images, paints are used to hand color small areas of color. A well-printed woodcut reveals all the fine detail of the cutting, as well as the subtle variations in the edges and surfaces of the block. Careful printing requires a great deal of time, patience and effort.