All on a Summer’s Day 

Charles Blackman’s “All on a Summer’s Day” is realized through the printmaking technique of screen printing, which gives the image its vibrant color and flat expanses of tone. Screen printing is a highly reproducible method of making images, aligned with the democratic spirit of graphic design. Blackman has embraced this technique, not to make editions of identical images, but as a means of developing subtle variations, playing with color and composition. The result is an image that hovers between the handmade and the mechanically reproduced. Note how the solid blocks of color emphasize the dream-like, surreal quality of the image. The screen printing process is used to imbue the scene with a sense of light and shadow, while still allowing for Blackman’s distinctive color palette. By using this particular form of printmaking, Blackman is making an important statement about the value of accessible art, a sentiment that invites us to reconsider the boundary between art and craft.