I draw, I sketch and produce mixed-media collages but my absolute passion is for linocutting, and it has been since the mid 1990's. I enjoy the physical process of cutting and carving the lino with freshly honed tools and I find the variety of styles and marks I can achieve with such simple materials always challenging but endlessly surprising and satisfying. You can read more about me and my work here.
NEWS SNIPPETS - April 2024
After all the rain of the last month, today is all blue skies, sunshine and beautiful birdsong.
I'd promised myself a clear window of time to focus on my own work this year and the first new edition for 2024 "They said it might snow", has just been uploaded to the Waterfalls section of the website. Another large lino, featuring John Piper's farmhouse in the Ogwen Valley, now possibly better recognised as the cottage in the TV series 'Mr Bates and the Post Office' is also complete and available in the Mountains section of the shop.
I'm teaching again in May I'm hoping to also work on two more new linocuts over the next couple of months. The first is of a tree (Cedar of Lebanon) in Bodnant Gardens and a return visit to the view from the Menai Suspension Bridge looking towards Beaumaris will be the second.
Reduction linocutting is one of the most complex and intriguing forms of relief printmaking - it requires having to work with a reversed sketch or drawing, being able to envisage multiple layers of tone and colour, all whilst working toward a final image which exists only in my head.
The reduction process involves using a single block of lino which is progressively cut away for each layer of colour. As the block is essentially destroyed during the process, a reduction print can never be reprinted or re-editioned, guaranteeing a genuinely limited edition.
