A Flat Pack Mari Lwyd

Mari Lwyd time will soon be here and I’ve been doing a little lino cut to make some cards to celebrate. She’s a manifestation of the ancient Celtic horse goddess, Epona – or Rhiannon in Wales, and might even be linked to the earliest cave paintings of shamen in their animal masks. She makes herContinue reading “A Flat Pack Mari Lwyd”

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

“Ce n’est pas un Mari. Ceci est un impression lino d’un Mari.” Just channelling a bit of Magritte there. Mari Lwyd traditionally welcomes in the New Year in Wales …. well, who else would wander around with a dead horse’s head on a stick at this time of year? And “Blwyddyn Newydd Dda” is WelshContinue reading “Blwyddyn Newydd Dda”

Waste Not, Want Not.

After printing up all nine of my little brutalised randomised vinyl blocks yesterday in the final, blue, colour, I used up the ink that was left on a large sheet of Mylar, or Mark Resist, film. I’d already printed up the yellow and red leftover inks. Waste Not, Want Not eh? I’ve no idea whatContinue reading “Waste Not, Want Not.”

Surrealists, Semiotics and Fifties Frock Fabric

I finally finished the random lino project I began a couple of weeks ago. I printed the final colour, Process Blue, today, using Caligo Safewash mixed with Extender in a 30:70 ratio. These were overprinted on two previous layers, Process Yellow and Process Magenta and I like the range of colours formed by the translucencyContinue reading “Surrealists, Semiotics and Fifties Frock Fabric”

Surrealists In The Bathroom

I was doing some experimental lino cuts earlier in the week, trying to push myself out of my comfort zone, printing hacked-up vinyl blocks randomly onto ripped paper. At the end of each session I had a bit of ink left over. Well, waste not, want not, I had a sheet of translucent Mylar filmContinue reading “Surrealists In The Bathroom”

Nooks And Crannies

This morning I carried on with my detour into randomness, overprinting yesterday’s yellow lino cuts with red (Caligo Easy Wipe in Process Magenta mixed 70:30 with Extender). Because I had a moment of madness and ripped the paper with my bare hands instead of using a nice steel straight edge it was a bit awkwardContinue reading “Nooks And Crannies”

Random Ripping

So, carrying on with my experiment to loosen up and make my approach to art more random and less controlled. I have gone through a process of cutting vinyl blocks randomly, with a selection of tools, then I hacked away at the edges to get rid of the square boundaries. So the next stage isContinue reading “Random Ripping”

The Tyranny Of The Border

Carrying on with pushing myself out of my comfort zone, I took hold of the squares of vinyl I have been carving at random and started hacking away at the edges. I suppose like so many people I’ve been conditioned to think of two-dimensional art as something sitting neatly within a clearly defined square orContinue reading “The Tyranny Of The Border”

More Cuts

I carried on cutting small blocks of vinyl at random, playing around with different tools (Flexcut). I’ve been having a bit of a creative block so I’ve taken a leaf out of The Surrealists book and set an exercise for myself to get a bit more random. The Surrealists had a number of strategies toContinue reading “More Cuts”

Just Cut

I’ve hit a creative block and it’s been hard to get the motivation or ideas for new artwork. So today I decided to just grab a handful of printmaker’s vinyl, my lino cutting tools and cut at random. No design or preconceptions, just stab away at the vinyl and see how it goes. The firstContinue reading “Just Cut”