Proofing The Stones

I’m travelling around South West Wales with archaeologist Dewi Bowen who is researching his new book on Neolithic / Bronze Age monuments and I’m drawing the stones as we travel across the – mostly – wild spaces of South Wales. But I’m a printmaker as well as a scribbler and I’m developing ideas for prints from the stones. I cut these small blocks of vinyl a few weeks ago and today I had an afternoon in the studio at Swansea Print Workshop on the antique Colombian Press, taking a first proof of my 8 blocks. I’m very pleased with four of them; two need some more cutting and maybe need to be printed in two colours instead of one,]; one I’m not sure about so I’ll try some more cutting to see how it goes; and one of the blocks is so naff, it’s a non starter. That’s six decent ones out of eight, not bad at all.  I used Intaglio Printmaker’s litho/relief ink in black onto newsprint paper – no point in using decent paper for a first proof.

Dewi’s previous book on the stones of Ancient Siluria (South East Wales) can be found here. Accompanying us is film maker Melvyn Williams who is recording a documentary about our experiences. Some of Melvyn’s short films can be seen here. I’m currently working on a series of expressive drawings of ancestral sites and if you want to see some of my other artworks, please click here.