Whether he knows it or not, The Post's gardener-in-residence, Henry Mitchell, provided the impetus for Bethesda printmaker Ann Zahn's series of works at the Studio Gallery. In his column some time ago, Mitchell suggested keeping a garden journal. The idea appealed to Zahn, also an avid gardener, but being an artist rather than a wordsmith, she set to work on a pictorial chronicle of the daily happenings on her patch of earth. Zahn's ingenious "Garden Journals," largely composed of lithographs and etchings, turned out to be much more than the name implies. The etchings, printed in color, show us the first tulips of the season and autumnal harvests as well as the people and places beyond the garden that have special significance for the artist.
She presents her journal for 1989 - a 2-by-2-inch etching for every day of the year - in the form of vertical scrolls and separate horizontal pieces. Organized in rows like a sheet of postage stamps, the mini-etchings of flora and fauna, portraits and landscapes abut one another in premeditated abandon. In another version Zahn allows a little breathing room between each etching, and even frames some of them separately, but the close proximity of these expressionistic images works best.
Zahn turns to a book format for another "Garden Journal," which includes color lithographs, linoleum cuts and handmade paper. With one page for each month of the year, she doesn't stray too far from what her garden grows. These garden scenes are accompanied by swatches of handmade paper on each page, prepared from such unlikely materials as squash and cucumber in combination, wisteria or holly (for December, of course). The lithographs are also framed individually with the appropriate handmade paper as backing; the subtle variations in texture and color of these papers are striking when Zahn places them side by side in a separate form. Far less interesting is a six-panel painted screen, which lacks the inventiveness of the other works in the show. If there's to be a "Garden Journal" for 1991, these chronicles will be a hard act to follow.