Artwork description:

The lyrical title of this work is Fferm Gwyntog, meaning Windswept Farm in the Welsh language. There are hill farms and coastal smallholdings like this all over North Wales, traditional buildings that were built by resilient people, eking out a living in a bleakly beautiful landscape. I wanted to capture this one that I saw close by the Anglesey coast, it was sitting in a sea of rushes, with a small orchard of windblown damson trees. In the moment that I have illustrated, a flock of jackdaws are riding the uplift from the sea wind, and the low sun lights up the gable and rushes, while a storm gathers overhead.

This print is a reduction Linocut, made by cutting and overprinting successive layers of ink from a single block of Lino, until it is reduced to the last few details. I make very limited editions when I use the reduction method, usually ten prints or less and when finished, they cannot be repeated as the block has been destroyed in the making.

I use water-based relief inks, blending them to achieve the right colours and I print onto traditional printmakers paper, either Somerset Satin or a French milled paper. The paper is a soft white with a velvety surface and may have the deckled edge on one side, depending on where it is cut from the full sheet. I use an old Victorian book press to take the impression or rub by hand with a Japanese baren if the print is too big to fit into the press.

Your print will be carefully prepared for shipping, wrapped in acid free tissue paper and rolled inside a sturdy cardboard tube, cushioned with tissue at either end and securely sealed.

Materials used:

Water-based inks, cotton printmaking paper, rubber rollers and an iron press.

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