Salon
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A physicist discovers the white-line woodcut
The white-line woodcut technique was invented in the opening decades of the 20th century by a group of artists who spent each summer in the Provincetown, Massachusetts art colony. This group – called the “Provincetown Printers” had an admiration for the delicate and full color woodcuts perfected by the Japanese in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Japanese technique was both labor intensive and complicated by the need for carving individual wood blocks for each color used in the scene. The Provincetown Printers developed the “white-line” technique that instead used a single woodblock to create the final image on paper.
The popularity of the Provincetown Print had a brief flourish with the first group shows in New York City and Provincetown in 1916 but then largely was forgotten. The technique saw a resurgence in early 1980’s after well publicized exhibits at the National Gallery of Art and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. Fred Dylla has been making white-line woodcuts for two decades. His mentor, Cape Cod artist Bill Evaul, helped to rediscover the art form in Provincetown in the 1980’s and has been teaching and exhibiting white-line woodcuts ever since.
Fred’s white-line woodcuts have been shown at art exhibits in Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware for the last 15 years. His work makes frequent appearances at the Rehoboth Writers Guild Art in the AM series. He is a member of the Rehoboth Art League and the Art League of Ocean City. He has been teaching the white-line technique at the Rehoboth Art League and the Chestertown (MD) Art League for the last three years. Fred makes his home in Lewes, Delaware with his wife Linda who is science writer and textile artist and a needy terrier named Frankie named after his favorite crooner.
Contact: Fred.Dylla@gmail.com
Website: https://freddylla.com
Lead Person & Content Photo Credits: Scott Nathan
Banner Photo Credits: The Provincetown Print, “Sail Boat” (1933) by Blanche Lazzell
(For more information on Blanche Lazzell, click here)
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Fred is the Executive Director Emeritus of the American Institute of Physics. He has spent 50 years as an enquiring physicist helping to design and build scientific facilities for astronomy, fusion energy, particle and nuclear physics, medical and materials research. Along the way he enjoyed sharing his love of science and the arts with students, colleagues, family and friends. For many years he admired his two daughters’ artwork, Kim and Sarah, both graduates of the UVa School of Fine arts and began painting to have something to talk about with them. He finds the white-line woodcut medium is a perfect blend of his two artful passions of woodworking and watercolor painting.
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