Kissed By The Sun

Color linocut reduction printed in six colors on wove paper.
Edition of 100.
Signed, titled and numbered in pencil.  

NOTE: The first image you see on this page is a detail of a larger work. To see the overall composition, please scroll to the other image(s).

"DETAILS EXHIBIT" NOTE:

There is no reason why you shouldn’t take in the images William Hays creates at first glance.  They are constructions of his imagination which intend to delight us by being direct.  The chromatic effects and compositional layout is clear in each work.  You can “read” it easily.  But Hays does not content himself with that purpose alone.  He also relishes details captured only with the most patient of techniques.  In Kissed by the Sun it is easy to overlook the title’s intent, which is to make us look closer up.  The green crowns of the trees, both in the middle and background, have been softened with a touch of pinkish beige.  The setting sun, which seemingly radiates almost not light at this point, still manages to lightly illuminate the foliage for a few more moments, before calling it a day.  And while you have your nose on those trees, why don’t you look at the sky, which is different in each impression.  Hays hand wiped each sun & sky to create slightly different effects every time.  By allowing some transparency in the inks, as one overlays the other, lovely textures appear, with the pink light peeking through the bluish darkness, which will soon fully engulf this landscape.