Last week I learned …

I have not considered my recent artistry as anything more than another lesson to lo learn like: cooking, dressmaking or gardening.  It is a skill I enjoy and wish to pursue further and perfect.  As I would to bake a delicious cake, a sew fine frock or bring my garden to a constant delight. I am learning to make a print or paint a masterpiece; it will be part of my lifes work in progress.  (I haven’t yet learned to bake a cake either)

But these last few weeks it has been more than that, I have been working on a particularly awkward ‘reduction’ linocut.

The first attempt as previously described was not so nice; but the second one has proved a bit more pleasing.  

The whole procedure is time consuming because I intentionally used oil based inks and these are notoriously slow drying and need at least a week between layers.

It all began with some life size sketches of a bowl of fruit, that was then scaled down to a lino cut.  This then was gradually cut away and printed. The concentration and deliberation has been like that of a meditation; but not focusing on the breath but on the cutting until I am left with a skeleton of the previous images or bigger picture!

I have not yet made the last print but it will be a fragment; little more than a breath that will be gone.

I have of course got a vibrant assortment of prints.  They are a reflection of the original bowl of fruit I drew a few weeks ago and eaten .  The lino has been cut away and tiny shards of rubber are in the bin.

This last image is strangely the one I like the best; a proof on news print and marked clumsily with the next cuts; it as beautiful as a breath.