Born: Dronten, 1961 In 1984 Grietje Postma enrolled at the Academie Minerva in Groningen. By the time she left school in 1989 she was a printmaker; she found her technique in color woodcut reduction. By carving a single plank of wood in consecutive states, all colors are printed from one matrix. Unlike most artists who have practiced the reduction method, and there are few, she works from dark to light. The complete plank of wood is printed in the darkest color on all sheets of the edition. She then cleans off the matrix and carves it for a first time, taking out those areas she wishes to show in this first darkest color, all the while printing over other areas with a second, lighter color. Thus carving the lines for one color at a time and printing it on the whole edition at once, she ends up with a plank almost completely carved away, with only the lightest color highlights still raised on the plank. This is a one-way street: as she carves each color, in successive states, she takes away the very lines needed to print darker (earlier) colors. Because darker colors have been mostly covered by lighter ones, most of Postma’s compositions often feel “animated”. Looming through the tiny unevenness of inking, caused by the texture and grain of the wood, the viewer detects colors that have mostly been hidden. This “translucent” quality gives great depth to her landscapes. Postma combines this technique with a great simplicity. The branches of trees, the stems of flowers, blades of grass, all make up the linear texture of compositions of great austerity.... Since 1988, Grietje has been carving a few color woodcuts each year. Averaging about 5 compositions each year, her oeuvre amounts to only about one 125 prints to date. She prints her planks with the greatest of care in small editions of 15 to 25. Her thick sheets on Van Gelder paper have pristine margins and registration is impeccable.... [Derived from text at https://www.grietjepostma.nl/en/biography/] undefined

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