Artwork description:

This is the second in my series of linocuts of buildings with fire escapes. The first piece was 'Hove', where I was inspired by a found photograph I came across of a building in my place of residence, Hove near Brighton. (This piece is also listed in my shop).

This piece was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2019 and was exhibited in Gallery VII which was curated by Anne Desmet and Barbara Rae.

The inspiration for this one came when I was wandering around Eastbourne - a sweet, old fashioned coast town twenty miles east of Brighton. I caught sight of a building on a corner as the sun was setting - the harsh light against this particular fire escape looked beautiful and I took a photo.

I enjoy the high contrast of the multiple lines of fire escapes against blank walls and I think it makes for an aesthetically pleasing (and challenging!) linocut which is why I decided to create this series of buildings and their fire escapes in various locations. I also like the concept of re-contextualising images which some might not notice - in this case, the sides of buildings rather than the building within a traditional cityscape image.

This is a limited edition one layer linocut image where I have used two rollers to colour the sky separately to the building and I specially selected a handmade Japanese printmaking paper where the colour of the paper could represent the ivory-cream colour of the building.

Materials used:

Kitakata select washi paper, oil based relief printing inks

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