The Process

Found Object

Harry Clewans begins the process of making his large-scale woodcut collages by finding objects, often in the natural world, sometimes detritus or junk, that spark his interest and inspiration. Here’s one, a double-curled piece of birch bark:

Avery thin strip of birch. curling in on itself

Then he draws the object on a block of pearwood and carves the image into it.

A wood block with the image of a birch curl carved into it

Carving Tools & Printing Brayers

The print of the carved drawing.

wood block print of a curl of birch wood

A portion of the woodcut print will be placed into the finished piece.

Collaging Process

Clewans may collage hundreds of fragments of individual woodcuts into the composition of each finished piece. Here’s a closer look at that part of the process.

Wood cut prints assembled into an iage of a bird standing among rocks and twigs

Here is the first block and a print made from it, with just a portion of the whole woodcut selected.

Here is a second woodcut and its print.

A wood cut block of a tangle of string and its corresponding print

The two prints are joined together.

Two wood cuts are cut and joined together joining the lines in the prints

Clewans makes a drawing of the whole work, ready to receive the woodcut fragments.

Pencil drawing of a flowering cherry tree with gnarled twisting branches

The joined print fragments are placed on top of the drawing.

And the parts are integrated into the work.

Detail of a woodcut print of an imaginary flowering cherry tree

Here’s the finished piece.

Harry Clewans, Imaginary Cherry Tree
52” x 24” 2025

Studio

Clewans’ studio functions as a kind of catalogue installation, displaying the prints from every woodblock he has made, as well as some of the found objects and photos that form the basis of his process. The walls function as a lexicon or periodic table of the set of elements that compose his work.

Another view of wall of images:

Found Objects

Miscellaneous objects on a shelf including a shaving curl of birchwood, pieces of wood, coral, stone, bone and a decrepit stuffed bear

Source Material

prints on paper of a bubbling brook in a wooded area, an archival photo of a woman leading two yoked horned cattle uphill and an image of an archival engraving of a Roman emmisarium

The Process of a Single Large-scale Work

Clewans often begins his large-scale work by selecting an archival photograph or image.

For this work, the image comes from the 19th Century Parisian photographer Eugène Atget.

An open book with a photo of the photographer's studio ahowing a desk, chair and stool in a cramped room with bottles and many objects on the shelves near the desk

Here is Clewans’ large-scale drawing of the Atget photograph.

65 x 51 inch drawing of the photo L'atelier d'Atget by Eugène Atget, depicting a desk, chair and stool in a cramped room

Clewans pins the woodcut fragments to the drawing, often adding color.

Woodcut sections by Harry Clewans attached on top of this drawing of a photo, the photographer's studio by Egéne Atget.

When all the woodcut components are pinned in place on the drawing, the initial composition is completed.

Harry Clewans wood cuts assembled on top of his drawing of a photo by Eugéne Atget

Then all the pieces are mapped on a wood substrate, and the individual woodcut pieces are glued seamlessly in place.

With the drawing mapped onto a wood panel, about 1/3 of the area is filled in with wood cut print shapes of various sizes and colors, allwogin the desk in the original Atget photo to take shape

The completed work blends and yet reveals a multitude of prior images and recaps the historical development of the reproduced image.

detail of final wood block print, showing wood cuts assembled to depict books, papers and other objects on the desk and shelves

The completed work.

Harry Clewans assembled woodcut print homage to a photograph by Egéne Atget depicting the photographer's studio with desk, chair, stool and many books, papers and objects on the shelves around the room

Harry Clewans, Photographer’s Studio
65” x 51” 2024