The Pochoir Process

This print is a pochoir, which is an old, uniquely French method of printmaking. Today the pochoir method is normally done by cutting thin aluminum in such a way that the shapes depicted in the artwork are separate and defined. A special kind of razor is used in this initial stage. Then brushing the gouache (an opaque watercolor) onto the paper with a kind of shaving brush using swirling motions through the aluminum cut-outs creates the effect of a watercolor. The resulting print has the characteristics of an original, one-of-a-kind work, unlike images created by any other multiple printing method known.

Pochoir is often called the grandfather of silkscreen, though silkscreen prints are printed through a screen. However, the basic block-out method is the same. It is a medium that Lautrec, Vuillard, Steinlen, and other poster artists at the turn of the century in France utilized frequently and it was highly valued for its original look.

Artist Biography

Arthur Secunda, an artist of international renown whose career spans eight decades, has exhibited his work globally through one-man shows. Transitioning across continents, his exhibitions have graced galleries and museums in France, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Israel, and Japan. Meanwhile, in the United States, his presence adorns major museums such as the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the UCLA Museum, the Detroit Art Institute, and the Phoenix Museum.

Secunda’s artistic versatility extends to various mediums, encompassing brilliant collages, striking graphics, and mastery in printmaking, including crafting his own paper in France and Japan. His artistic journey commenced at the Detroit Art Institute during his teenage years and continued in New York at the Art Students League and New York University. Following a stint in the Air Force, where he served as an artist, he utilized the GI bill to study in Mexico, Paris, and Italy, under the mentorship of renowned artists and teachers. This experience ignited a lifelong passion for travel and cross-cultural immersion. For decades, he maintained studios in both Paris and Los Angeles.

Identifying as a landscape artist, Secunda has cultivated his unique iconography to represent nature and its forms, alongside corresponding inner landscapes. His signature color gradation and blending of forms permeate his work across various media, ranging from serene landscapes with striated colors to expressive oil paintings.

Despite spending years in Paris, Secunda has anchored himself in Scottsdale for the past decade, continuing his creative endeavors. His diverse professional background includes roles as a jazz musician, a milkman, an art critic, lecturer, curator, writer, and publisher. He also contributes to NASA as an image visualizer, translating scientific data into visual representations. Highly regarded as a teacher, he is scheduled to conduct a master class in collage and handmade artist books in Lacoste, France, in August.

In 2025, he will unveil a one-man exhibition at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, featuring a series of expressive portrait monotypes of noted art personalities. Subsequently, he will exhibit early Mexican woodcuts at McMasters University in Hamilton, Ontario, in a two-man showcase alongside Indian artist Mansaram Panchal.