Margaret Preston

Mosman Bay 1920
woodcut, printed in black ink, from one block, hand-coloured; undesignated impression
National Gallery of Australia
Purchased from Gallery admission charges 1987

In her 1930 Art in Australia article ‘Wood-blocking as a craft’, Preston outlined the process for colour printing using a key block with registration marks: ‘the way the Japanese did it, is to cut a cross at the top and at the bottom of the key block’.

In prints completed soon after she returned to Australia and settled in the harbour-side suburb of Mosman with husband Bill Preston, such as Mosman Bay 1920 and The boat, Sydney Harbour c. 1920, small black crosses are visible in the upper and lower centre of the compositions.

These registration marks suggest the prints were intended to be multiple block colour works, however they were hand-coloured by Preston: the primary technique for works in her extensive colour woodblock oeuvre.