Riders

Frederick O'Hara

This early color woodcut by Frederick O'Hara depicts two mounted hunters with their spears at the ready. The images could well have been drawn as petroglyphs found around Albuquerque. The artist used only two blocks, a black block to create the figures and an uncut, enhanced grain block to print the ochre color.

O'Hara learned the color woodcut technique from Adja Yunkers in Albuquerque, New Mexico, probably in 1949 after he returned from six years in Europe. He then went on to study lithography with Elmer Schooley who taught it at Highlands University in Las Vegas, NM.

O'Hara's printmaking was always pushing the edges of imagery and technique, always experimental. In this print he has enhanced the woodgrain of the background block and printed the resulting grainy texture in a single printing.