Patricia Curtan is an artist and designer living in Berkeley, California. She works in the medium of linoleum block printing, making images primarily of plants, particularly edible plants. Most recently, two print suites, one of fruit and one of vegetables, were produced in limited editions and reproduced as illustrations in Chez Panisse Fruit (2002), and Chez Panisse Vegetables (1996) by Alice Waters, published by HarperCollins. Patricia was also the designer and typographer for both books, her latest role in a long association with Chez Panisse Restaurant as cook, cookbook co-author, designer and printer. Other work includes letterpress menus, notecards and broadsides, logo and identity design, and artwork for labels and product packaging.

The process of making the prints is three part: drawing, carving and printing. It begins with a pencil drawing, which is then transferred to linoleum blocks: a smooth layer of linoleum mounted on wood. The linoleum is carved with a knife and gouges to remove the negative space of the image and leave a raised relief printing surface. A separate block is cut for each color in the image. The blocks are then printed, one color at a time, on a 10 x 15 Chandler & Price letterpress — a one-hundred-year old, cast-iron beauty. In some images, some of the blocks are printed multiple times to make layers of color. Some images have as many as twelve blocks and may pass through the press twenty times.

Roll-over the number sequence at right to view the progressive states of the printing process of the persimmon image. The Fruit and Vegetable editions can be seen in the on-line galleries, entitled Fruit Prints and Vegetable Prints.