(not so) mellow yellow

 
We are surrounded by oilseed rape at the moment and the air is thick with the smell of it. Even at dusk this yellow crop has a strange luminosity. I feel sure that even if I went cycling at midnight i could find my way to the A1 by the glow of its flowers alone. With so much yellow about I am not sure whether there is a  market for bright yellow lino prints but here they are anyway!

left: Betty's Hen lino print
bottom right: In the Frame - yellow
(top right is a photo, taken across the field up the road with a power station in the background)

Its been a busy old couple of weeks. Not in an overly eventful way just with lots of little jobs and loose ends to tidy.

I popped over to the Bowery in Leeds last weekend to drop off another Betty's Hen print. There's just a few more weeks to catch my Hen and Thief exhibition over there. I've dropped off a few replacements for sold work over the 3 months but I won't get a tally of the sales until the end so I'm quite excited to hear how its gone.

I did find out earlier this week that I have been accepted for the next Art Market at Holmfirth on the 12th June. This is a wonderful event run over two weekends (there will be different exhibitors on the 5th June). Its superbly organised and brings in a wonderful range of people who are really interested in art and craft. Needless to say the quality of work on show is very high so I am really very pleased to have been offered a stall again this year. Lots of work to do in preparation! 

Its great to see my cheeky magpie flying with the rest of the L.ttle Bird  flock at The Dukes in Lancaster. I was hoping to get across to see the exhibition but this probably won't happen but luckily they have posted some great photos here. Fingers crossed for this fundraiser.


I've managed to squeeze in a couple of hours linocutting and printing too. I've printed some old favourites in some fresh colours for spring and i've half-printed a new one but i'll leave that for later.

Betty's Hen - ready to fly the coop

A limited edition of eight available in a lovely golden brown and delicate pale blue printed on Zerkal paper. Printed area measures approximately 23x30cm.

Available here

Betty's Hen - the film

P filmed the printing of Betty's Hen and put together a short film for me.



click here to shop for Betty's Hen

Betty’s Hen (work in progress part II)

I’ve now flipped the sketch, and traced it onto the lino. I find this stage quite satisfying as I get to see the pared down version of the design and this is usually a better reflection of the final print than my often overworked sketches. I also like the look of the white tracing on the pale grey lino.

The I can at last start cut and carving. I like this kind of design because it is still quiet creative at the cutting stage. Then because I had decided on a two colour print (and was too stingy to use to separate sheets of lino) I had to cut the hen out without spoiling the “background” lino so that I can ink and print from them one by one. This felt like bloomin’ hard work and I have big burst blisters on my fingers where the grip on my knife cut into my skin – I will not be skimping on lino again!  Off to recover with a glass of red. 

Betty's Hen (work in progress)

I’ve started on a new print featuring one of my sister’s hens. I’ve been a bit distracted of late so to concentrate my thoughts I will post on each stage of work. That way if progress stalls my blog will be a nagging reminder to get on with it. So here are the sketches – a pencil sketch and then an ink version. The ink version is an attempt to work out the cuts that I will make in the lino. Because I find it easier to colour in the areas to be cut thaN it is to colour around them this is in effect a negative image. 

Usually I also create a colour mock up either in coloured pencils like this or on screen in coreldraw or photopaint. I skipped this stage for Magpie tree and paid the consequences for my haste. So below is my colour mock up for Betty’s Hen. I reversed the ink image and put in some possible colour combinations. This shows me that there is far too much white on the breast feathers in this design so it needs some adjustment before I transfer it to the lino. It will be interesting to see just how close the final print is to this.