Artwork description:

Donkey Tail is a linocut made as part of my ongoing Garden Plants of Kenya printmaking series.

The linocut pays homage to a special family-favourite spot in the garden of my childhood home in Kenya whiling away afternoons together to the soundtrack, sights and scents of nature’s bounty. Shaded by the hot equatorial sun under an avocado tree was the Donkey Tail plant hanging from a branch. The dancing light on its simple and supple form against the coarse textures of its support captured me and has since sat with me.

Donkey Tail is a reduction linocut where the whole print is created from one piece of lino. Each layer of colour is carved and printed before continuing to the next layer of colour until the print is finally finished and the block destroyed - no more prints can be made from the same block of lino. This print has six layers of inking in all.

It is carved on Japanese vinyl, a modern lino, and printed using quality oil based printmaking ink on specialist Heritage paper with an etching press. Both the lino block and paper were an intentional choice to reflect the smooth, untextured surface of Donkey Tail and for the ink to sit vividly yet flat on the paper.

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