Cyanotype and Sun Prints

 

Hummingbird clearwing moth and Karner blue butterfly with lily of the valley cyanotype, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2026

I've been making more cyanotype experiments, combining them with linocut and other types of sun prints and playing with shapes. 

Tree of Heaven and Fern Cyanotype with Sun Print, by Ele Willoughby, 2026

Bumblebee cyanotype, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2026

Cat cyanotype with Virginia creeper cyanotype, by Ele Willoughby, 2026

Foxtail Barley cyanotype, 5" x 8" by Ele Willoughby, 
2026

Alliums and Dandelions Cyanotype, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2026

Skeleton, Fern and Wild Carrot Cyanotype, 11"  x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2026

Lily pads cyanotype and sun print, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2026

Bluegrass and Cyanotypes

 

Bluegrass Cyanotype, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2026

I was walking by the local high school with my son and noticed the long grass and became curious about it. I like to use the iNaturalist app to identify species I don't know and so I learned this was smooth meadow grass, also known as Kentucky bluegrass. When I realized that, I knew instantly I had to made a cyanotype, combining the grass and the music. As well as the grass itself, I've imaged an excerpt of the sheet music for Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Stomp.

I took the opportunity to make some other botanical cyanotypes with plants from my garden or cut flowers.

Fern cyanotype, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2026

Wild Geranium Cyanotype, by Ele Willoughby, 2026

Virginia creeper cyanotype, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2026

Gerbera Daisies Cyanotype, 8.5" x 11" by Ele Willoughby, 2026

Lilies of the valley cyanotype, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby

Making Cyanotypes in the Sun

I've been taking advantage of the late summer sunshine to make some cyanotypes with some of the specimen I gathered and put in my flower press while in New Brunswick and some "volunteers" from my garden.

Proso millet cyanotype, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby

Proso millet cyanotype, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby

Wild Carrot and Other Wildflowers cyanotype, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby

Wild Carrot and Other Wildflowers cyanotype, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby

Two Ferns Cyanotype,  on handmade paper with a deckle edge, about 7.25" x 9.75"
by Ele Willoughby, 2025

Fern Leaf Cyanotype, on handmade paper with a deckle edge, about 7.25" x 9.75" 
by Ele Willoughby, 2025

Found Monarch Butterfly Wings, Wildflower and Leaves Cyanotype, on handmade paper with a deckle edge, about 7.25" x 9.75" by Ele Willoughby, 2025

Cyanotypes and Memento mori

 One recent sunny day, I made some new cyanotypes, and also took the time to tone and tint some previous cyanotypes.

Skeleton Amongst Tulips, cyanotype by Ele Willoughby, 2024

Virginia creeper and red admiral butterfly cyanotype, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2024

Willow cyanotype, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2024

Virginia Creeper and Lemon Balm Cyanotype, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2024

Water is Life: Interconnection

 Local non-profit Water Docs Film Festival asked me if I would share their #ARTivist challenge for science art about issues of water and climate change. I shared some existing work which fit their themes and I wanted to create new work for the final theme: "Water is Life: Interconnection." 

At first I was a bit stumped. It's such a big topic. Water is central to all life on Earth. How can I represent that centrality, all life, the water cycle in one image? I think this is an instance where less is more. When I was in New Brunswick, I made a point to take a number of photos of lake water, as a reference for future art. I put this to work, creating a cyanotype with a negative of one of my photos and the theme itself as text, "WATER IS LIFE".

Water Is Life, cyanotype, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2023

Then, as I was thinking about the inescapable this summer: the way so much of this country is and has been literally on fire, I began to conceive of this as one half of a diptych. All 13 provinces and territories have seen forest fires in this, the worst forest fire season we have ever experienced. So far 150,504 km squared, or as much as 4% of the forested area of Canada, a huge country with much greater proportion forested areas than most countries. This is an area larger than the entire country of Greece. This is about 5 times the average yearly area affected by forest fires and much of the continent has been bathed in smoke through the summer. 

Climate change causes warmer and drier weather and has radically increased the risk of forest fire. We can expect extreme weather events with increased frequency and severity. Many regions have been left praying for rain.

I made this linocut to express the flip side of "water is life"; "No water no life." I used my lino block centered on the Arctic, including much of Canada, and painted it with flames, then printed the text on top.

No Water No Life, linocut, 11" x 14", by Ele Willoughby, 2023

So, as a diptych:

Water diptych, cyanotype and linocut by Ele Willoughby, 2023

Multimedia with Kites

 

Linocut kites on cyanotype sky with collaged washi, Ele Willoughby, 11" x 14", 2023

Linocut kites on cyanotype sky with collaged washi, Ele Willoughby, 11" x 14", 2023

Linocut kites on cyanotype sky with collaged washi and embroidery thread, Ele Willoughby, 11" x 14", 2023

Linocut kites on cyanotype sky with collaged washi, Ele Willoughby, 11" x 14", 2023

Linocut kites on cyanotype sky with collaged washi, Ele Willoughby, 11" x 14", 2023

 

Linocut kites with collaged washi, Ele Willoughby, 11" x 14", 2023

This is one of a series, each unique, of my hand made cyanotypes on watercolour paper (14" x 11") with an image of a cloud-filled sky overprinted with my linocut print of several kites, and wind-socks each collaged with beautiful Japanese washi papers. I made one without cyanotype and on one I hand-sewed embroidery thread for all the strings. The carp-shaped Koinobori wind socks (also known as satsuki-nobori) are flown in Japan to celebrate Tango no sekku, or Children's Day each May 5.

Cyanotype Experiments

In this wet cyanotype the lemon slices are acting as both the translucent object to be imaged and a source of water and acid which affects the photochemistry. By Ele Willoughby, 2023, on watercolour paper 11" x 14"

I have been experimenting with cyanotypes. A cyanotype is an early photographic method, first used in 1842, which produces a cyan blue print used today for monochromatic art or blueprints. It is made using a slow-reacting, photographic printing formulation sensitive to a limited near ultraviolet and blue light spectrum, the range 300nm to 400nm known as UVA radiation. Two chemicals are mixed: potassium ferricyanide and ferric ammonium citrate, and coated on a surface. I usually use watercolour paper and then water to develop and fix the image. Along with some straightforward botanical images, I have objects with interesting silhouettes like lace, notions and tools. I have also been combining these with images of my own linocuts on acetate. I have been experimenting with wet cyanotype, where you begin the developing right away by applying some water while exposing the surface, as well as messing with the chemistry with things like vinegar, lemon juice, salt, and spices. I have also tried adding things which themselves are light sensitive, like lilac dye, paprika and curry powder. The results always somewhat to completely unpredictable, especially since I have been using the sun as my source of UVA radiation. This week I started toning some of my cyanotypes by bleaching with washing soda which allows tannins to bond to iron in the emulsion so images can be tinted. You can use different sources of tannins but I started with things in my kitchen: green tea and coffee. I've also embellished some with my linocut prints. Here's a taste!

Cyanotype fern, 9" x 12", Cyanotype spots by Ele WilloughbyEle Willoughby, 2023

Cyanotype in spots, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2023

Cyanotype with teacup pattern lace, wild geraniums and lemon balm, toned with green team 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2023

Octopus cyanotype, toned with green tea, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2023

Wildflowers and grasses cyanotype with linocut moths, 8" x 10.25", by Ele Willoughby, 2023

Barrel Cortex, and more Cyanotypes

Hendrik van der Loos, linocut print, 11" x 14" by Ele Willoughby, 2022

This was a custom order I made earlier this fall: A linocut of neuroscientist Hendrik Van der Loos (1929-1993) and his discovery (along with medical student Thomas Woolsey), of the barrel cortex, along with the mouse head & whiskers linked directly to it.

Some species of rodents have a region of the somatosensory cortex that was named the #barrelcortex after its shape, and which contains the barrel field. The 'barrels' of the barrel field stain darker than neighbouring regions (within cortical layer IV) when stained to reveal the presence of cytochrome c oxidase. These dark-staining regions are a major target for somatosensory inputs from the thalamus of the #brain, & each barrel corresponds to a region of the body! Most distinctively, the whisker barrels, structures were first discovered by Woolsey & Van der Loos in 1970, come in an array, similar to the way whiskers are arrayed & they hypothesized that they could be matched up & each barrel represents 1 whisker. Due to this distinctive cellular structure, organisation, & functional significance, the barrel cortex is a useful tool to understand cortical processing & has played an important role in neuroscience. The majority of what is known about corticothalamic processing comes from studying the barrel cortex, and researchers have intensively studied the barrel cortex as a model of neocortical column. The whisker barrels are the focus of the majority of barrel cortex research, and 'barrel cortex' is often used to refer primarily to the whisker barrels.

Cyanotype skeletons by Ele Willoughby

I made several cyanotypes of my skeleton linocut on acetate along with leaves and wildflowers. A couple turned out quite pale and ghostly with the skeleton barely visible. So I made a linocut on top. I like the effect. It's a little eerie or dreamlike.

Early Photographic Methods: Anthotypes and Cyanotypes

Anthotype of raspberry leaves made on paper coated with juice from day lily petals

Anthotype of plants made on paper coated with older day lily blooms

Making art using plants lead me to experimenting with anthotypes, an early photographic method of coating paper with juice from photosensitive plants and then exposing them, for hours or even days, to sunlight. I've had varied results. It can be a little unpredictable. Some argue that this medium is always ephemeral, and always subject to fading, but some anthotypes exist which were made a century ago. So if carefully stored or displayed (away from direct sunlight and/or under UV-resistant glass), they can be long-lasting. 

Reading up about the method I learned that it was invented by none other than great mathematician, writer and polymath, Mary Somerville (1780-1872). 

My linocut portrait of Mary Somerville

She wrote about her findings in a letter to Sir John Herschel (nephew of Caroline, also in my women in STEM series). Herschel presented her results to the Royal Society* & did a lot of further research on early photographic methods, so he is often credited with this invention too. 

Sir John Herschel's own accomplishments include the discovery of the cyanotype method to make images first used in 1842, which produces a cyan blue print used today for monochromatic art or blueprints. It is made using a slow-reacting, photographic printing formulation sensitive to a limited near ultraviolet and blue light spectrum, the range 300nm to 400nm known as UVA radiation. Two chemicals are mixed: potassium ferricyanide and ferric ammonium citrate, and coated on a surface.

The first person to publish a book with photographs was botanist and scientific illustrator Anna Atkins. A friend of both William Henry Fox Talbot, who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, and Sir John Herschel, she was well positioned to understand what these methods could mean to scientific illustration, and as such she was acting as a science employing the high tech imaging of her day. When I made her portrait, I carved her as a linocut and then combined that with a blue screen print of fern leaves to mimic the look of the cyanotypes that she used in her books on seaweed and ferns. I have long wanted to make her portrait with actual cyanotypes so, that was my first goal when I started experimenting with making cyanotypes on paper and fabric.

Anna Atkins, linocut and cyanotype by Ele Willoughby, 2022

I have also been making a number of cyanotypes of plants and sometimes incorporating my linocut images on acetate. These are mediums which have a lot of potential and I'm experimenting!

Cyanotype of Queen Anne's Lace by Ele Willoughby

Cyanotype with linocuts of moths, flowers, grasses, and narcomedusa by Ele Willoughby

Cyanotype of my Narcomedusa linocut

*On the Action of the Rays of the Spectrum on Vegetable Juices. Extract of a Letter from Mrs. M Somerville to Sir J.F.W. Herschel, Bart., dated Rome, September 20, 1845. Communicated by Sir J. Herschel. Received November 6, -Read November 27, 1845, published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 136 (1846), p. 111-120.