Front Range c. 1945

Barbara Lucile Maples made 'Front Range' using coloured woodcuts; it's all in earthy greens, browns, and reds. Looking at this print, I get this sense of time being condensed into an image – like layers of sediment piling up. Maples coaxes texture out of the woodblock, so the mountains aren't just shapes, but have a kind of gritty, topographical feel. I can almost feel the pressure of her hand as she carves each line. The way she handles color is interesting. It's not quite naturalistic, but more about creating a mood, a sense of place. You can see the influence of Japanese prints here, in the way she simplifies the landscape to its essential forms. It's a reminder that artists are always borrowing, stealing, and remixing ideas across time and cultures. Thinking about the lineage of landscape painting, the conversations across time.