Archival Revival! Botanical Linoleum Block Prints (1980s to 1990s)

If you’re familiar with Anita White’s work, you may know her lively watercolors documenting people and places from everyday life. But this collection stands apart, celebrating the flowers and plants she loves through an entirely different medium: linoleum prints.

“These works show my love of flowers and native plants that grow in the Midwest, like bloodroot and trillium, along with seasonal flowers like lilacs, morning glories and hollyhocks,” White said. 

While she has been creating art for over 60 years, White’s first foray into linoleum block printing began in the 1980s, when her late husband Josh helped her make 12”x12” boards for linoleum blocks on which she would draw and carve images of plants and flowers in plein air, letting the warmth of the sun help make the carving process easier. 

She was inspired by wooded areas at a farm co-op where she enjoyed her summer vacations from teaching art. There she drew trillium, bloodroot plants with their large fan-like leaves, peonies, roses, morning glories, tiger lilies and sunflowers, that “circled around my heart year after year.”

White created these bold, graphic botanical works using printing ink and various kinds of paper, from simple white Japanese rice paper, then expanding to use many kinds of handmade colored papers. 
“I love the way the print would change on the various papers,” White observed.

Reviving these pieces from years ago helps her celebrate a lifetime of creation, while also reigniting her love of nature.

“Even though art piles up, it is my everyday activity and my way of expressing the beauty I see in the world,” White says. “My lovely summers of creating these prints now surface to share with you again!”

White plans to create a 2026 calendar using images from these prints, and encourages other artists to delve into their archives for inspiration: “I would like the viewer to reflect on projects or ideas they worked on years ago and see how those ideas can have another life decades later!”

Anita White’s work will be in the Vine Arts Member Gallery June 7 through July 5. The opening for the show is June 7 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm.