Release: 2020
Edition: 4
Size: 48″x24″ (excluding margins)
Margins: 2 1/2″
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Thai Mulberry paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2020
Size: 12″x9″ (including margins)
This original artwork was designed, carved, and printed by Lyell Castonguay. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Japanese Chiri. Chiri has randomly distributed bark pieces sprinkled throughout, so every sheet of paper is unique. The artwork is signed in pencil by the artist.
Year: 2020
Edition: 8
Size: 48″x24″ (excluding margins)
Margins: 2 1/2″
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Thai Mulberry paper. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2019
Size: 12″x9″ (including margins)
This original artwork was designed, carved, and printed by Lyell Castonguay. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Japanese Chiri. Chiri has randomly distributed bark pieces sprinkled throughout, so every sheet of paper is unique. The artwork is signed in pencil by the artist.
Date: 2019
Size: 12″x9″ (including margins)
The Vampire Tiger Tuna is a predator that spends most of its life on the sea floor searching for small crustaceans. Although its body structure looks somewhat awkward, the Tiger Tuna can synchronize its reptilian legs and fins to generate an effective form of locomotion called “swalking.” Its most defining characteristic may be the water spouts attached to the top of its head. The Tiger Tuna uses these to shoot a stream of water at unsuspecting victims. With its prey momentarily stunned, the Tiger Tuna coils its forked tongue around the victim and swallows it whole.
This original artwork was designed, carved, and printed by Lyell Castonguay. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Japanese Chiri. Chiri has randomly distributed bark pieces sprinkled throughout, so every sheet of paper is unique. The artwork is signed in pencil by the artist.
Date: 2019
Edition: 5
Proofs: 3
Size: 36″x24″ (excluding margins)
I was inspired to create this piece after learning that Cuckoos secretly lay their eggs in other birds’ nests. This cunning animal behavior is called Brood Parasitism. A wren or warbler species often raises the Cuckoo’s young. The adoptive parents will continue to nurture the imposter to maturity, even when the size difference becomes comically apparent. Scientists don’t know why the relationship exists, and the behavior seems incomprehensible but fascinating.
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Thai Mulberry paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Year: 2019
Edition: 4
Size: 48″x24″ (excluding margins)
Margins: 2″
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Thai Mulberry paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2019
Edition: 9
Size: 36″x24″ (excluding margins)
My woodblock prints reflect a deep respect for animals, especially birds. I created this image of a European Nightjar after reading about them in textbooks and listening to the whip-poor-will’s song. This piece illustrates how human activity has made bird migration increasingly complex over the centuries. I used two colors for this print: a cool-toned gray and an ultramarine-infused black. Hidden among the stars are constellations of birds, including the Phoenix and the Crane.
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Thai Mulberry paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2019
Edition: 8
Proofs: 1
Size: 36″x24″ (excluding margins)
The Peregrine Falcon, one of my favorite birds of prey, inspired this piece. The subject’s tufted eyebrows, contrasted by piercing eyes and distinctive cheek markings, add a hint of humor to an otherwise deadly avian personality. Holding the title “earth’s fastest animal” should give the Peregrine quite an ego! Playing around with this idea leads me to a tightly cropped composition in which the subject’s head is so gigantic it blots out the sun. Like many other images, this piece was executed as an ink drawing and then meticulously carved as a woodblock.
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Thai Mulberry paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Release: 2018
Edition: 5
Size: 48″x24″ (excluding margins)
Margins: 2 1/2″
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Thai Mulberry paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Year: 2018
Edition: 8
Size: 96″x40″ (excluding margins)
Margins: 1 1/2″
This piece captures the moment a Great White Egret attempts to snatch a crayfish from the depths of a river. I developed a composition that plunges downward, leading the viewer’s eye to the crayfish. All the abstract water textures are designed to disorient the viewer and amplify the struggle.
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Japanese Masa paper. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2017
Edition: 9
Proofs: 2
Size: 22″x20″ (including margins)
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Stonehenge paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2017
Edition: 15
Proofs: 1
Size: 22″x20″ (including paper size)
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Stonehenge paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2017
Edition: 12
Proofs: 1
Size: 22″x20″ (including margins)
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Stonehenge paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2016
Edition: 15
Size: 11″x15″
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Japanese Okawara paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2016
Edition: 6
Size: 19″ x 13″ (excluding margins)
Gianni Verna of Nuova Xilographia in Turin, Italy, requested an image for a tribute show dedicated to the poet Guido Gozzano. Verna’s organization mounted an exhibit at the Castle of Agliè to celebrate the centennial of the poet’s death. Although Gozanno only lived to be thirty-three, his work brought him acclaim and admiration at an early age. He is still one of the country’s most recognized writers. A passage inspires my print in one of Gozzano’s most famous works, Absence.
The pool is resplendent. And stilled
are the frogs. But there flashes a spear
of blue ember, bright emerald
lighting: the kingfishers here…
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Japanese Kitakata paper. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2015
Size: 12″x12″ (excluding margins)
I was inspired to create this piece after viewing Brancusi’s bird sculptures. The word maïastra means “master” or “chief” in Brancusi’s native Romanian, but in Romanian folklore, the title refers specifically to a magically beneficent, dazzlingly plumed bird.
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Japanese Kitakata paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2015
Edition: 18
Size: 12″ x 12″ (excluding margins)
This print combines burnt sienna and metallic gold inks, creating a crisscross of finely carved textural elements. What results is a 100% Harpy Eagle attitude! The term Maiastra was inspired in part by the famous Brancusi sculpture series. Four hand-carved woodblocks, printed in five colors, were used to create this image.
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Japanese Kitakata paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Year: 2015
Edition: 6
Proofs: 1
Size: 80″x40″ (excluding margins)
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Japanese Masa paper. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Year: 2015
Edition: 9
Size: 48″x24″ (excluding margins)
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Japanese Okawara paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2014
Edition: 15
Size: 24 “x12” (excluding margins)
I created this image by appropriating John James Audubon’s original American Flamingo composition. Some Flamingo colonies reached over 1 million in Africa, so I wanted to express a feeling of frantic activity!
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Stonehenge paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2014
Edition: 20
Size: 36″x24″ (excluding margins)
The main inspiration for this piece is the combination of colors in Hokusai’s Fine Wind and Clear Morning. I appropriated elements from the original ukiyo-e print to create this arresting bird portrait.
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Stonehenge paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2014
Edition: 22
Size: 24″x24″ (excluding margins)
This piece is inspired by my pet society finches. These birds live in close quarters and rely on cooperation and cohabitation. Inspired partly by a Janus head, the composition places two contrasting personalities on one body.
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Stonehenge paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2014
Edition: 9
Size: 19″x16″ (excluding margins)
A swarm of birds performs aeronautical feats to gain upward mobility. Each is struggling to rise in the pecking order. The object of desire, a worm, is buried deep in the pile.
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Stonehenge paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2013
Edition: 8
Size: 43″x48″ (excluding margins)
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Japanese Masa paper. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Only one left!
Date: 2013
Edition: 14
Size: 16″x16″ (excluding margins)
One day, after my pet doves had finished bathing, I photographed one of them in this pose. The intensity of the bird’s gaze struck me, so I created this homage.
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Japanese Mulberry paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Year: 2013
Edition: 9
Size: 48″x24″ (excluding margins)
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Japanese Okawara paper. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2012
Edition: 7
Size: 43″x52″ (including margins)
Lyell Castonguay designed, carved, and printed this original artwork. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Japanese Masa paper. The artist signed, titled, and numbered the edition in pencil below the image.
Date: 2012
Edition: 10 (varied)
Size: 4″x30″ (excluding margins)
This original artwork was designed, carved, and printed by Lyell Castonguay. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Masa Japanese paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artwork is signed, titled, and numbered in pencil by the artist.
Date: 2012
Edition: 10 (varied)
Size: 4″x30″ (excluding margins)
This original artwork was designed, carved, and printed by Lyell Castonguay. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto Masa Japanese paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artwork is signed, titled, and numbered in pencil by the artist.
Date: 2010
Edition: 7 (varied)
Size: 22″x30″ (excluding margins)
This original artwork was designed, carved, and printed by Lyell Castonguay. Ink is applied to a carved wooden block and hand-pressed onto dyed banana paper. Multiple carved blocks layer colors, resulting in a dramatic effect. The artwork is signed, titled, and numbered in pencil by the artist.
