Imprinted Brushstroke

This print was made for a competition held in memory of Lithuanian interwar expressionist painter Antanas Samuolis. The work was not chosen to be displayed. It did not quite fit in – or perhaps I did not. Nevertheless, the process led me to details in his painting that I found genuinely intriguing. The print was produced during my internship at Graphic Studio Dublin – oldest printmaking studio in Dublin.

In the paintings of Antanas Samuolis, I found not only anxious brushwork and expressive painterly language, but also unexpected graphic structures. As a point of departure, I chose his well-known painting Yellow Woman (1933). My attention was drawn to a trembling ornamental form in the blue field beside the woman’s right shoulder. I selected this calligraphic fragment of abstract strokes and reinterpreted it through the printmaking technique of carborundum.

Carborundum enables a painted gesture to be transferred into print and multiplied through editioning. Relief-like brushstrokes press into the paper, acquiring a new physical presence and material weight.

Samuolis’s canvases carry creative memory; it is known that he often painted over earlier works. This principle of concealment and persistence reappears in my print. Using three plates and three colours, I build the image through layers that cover and reveal one another, forming the final fragment.

Yellow Woman, 1933
Imprinted Brushstroke, 2026

Printmaking in painting, painting in printmaking.