Dog Team

Eva Auld Watson

Eva Auld Watson and her husband, Ernest Watson worked in the relief method of linoleum cut. A linocut prints like a woodcut but there is no wood-grain to deal with when carving or printing. Using an oil base ink Watson uses a a split fountain technique with a couple of blocks to achieve the blending of the colors within the composition.

Eva Auld studied with M.O. Leiser at the Pittsburg School of Design for Women and later with Ernest W. Watson (whom she married in 1911) at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. The Watsons spent summers in the Berkshire Hills in Massachusetts and in 1915 Ernest co-founded the Berkshire Summer School of Art in Monterey, Massachusetts. Their summer home at Greywold in Monterey, Mass. became their studio where they printed and sold their block prints.

Watson creates a dynamic composition, a dog team racing through the snow at sunset. She surrounds the sled with trees, bathed in shades of blues, with dramatic white slashes that add a sense of urgency to the situation.