A New Zealand artist has found a nonconventional way to use traditional woodcut printmaking tools to create splendidly colorful carved paintings, featuring animal and nature motifs. Following designs drawn lightly in chalk atop painted wooden panels, the artist, Hannah Jensen, 37, from Christchurch, New Zealand, plunges her engraving tool into the still slightly soft acrylic membrane to, in an oh-so-satisfying way, peel back slivers of color. Her painting method is reductive rather than additive, carving into layers upon layers of pre-applied acrylic to reveal images within. In order to prep for this moment, however, Hannah has to spend some four or six weeks applying coats of seemingly nonsensically contrasting hues—as many as 23 layers—onto her panels. No shapes, no lines, no contrast, nor imagery. Just layers of flat paint. Once that sets, she lays out her designs, based on researched imagery, and starts a carving process that can take anywhere from a …