Return to printmaking...

Having found there are less hours in the day than is necessary to keep up with the artwork I need to produce, with several impending exhibitions I have no work for; I have decided that prints are the answer.

The word print means two things of course, the first being hand-made, and the second being a reproduction of an artwork. I intend to produce both, and am making enquiries about producing limited editions of my watercolours. Meantime it is back to hand-made prints, which I have a little experience of. I have always considered myself a novice printmaker, and that it is just something I dabble in, yet have sold a few in the past, my speciality is a kind of Lino/Monoprint combination

So feeling somewhat nervous, with little recollection of what to do I went back to the print workshop at Gainsborough's House. Above you can see a couple of the very old presses. If you look towards the left hand bottom you can see the handle I whacked my knee into resulting in some rather spectacular bruising.

After this painful start, and with help finding stuff from some of the other artists in the workshop that day, I was soon happily playing with ink. Printmaking comes a close second to mosaics in it's ability to ruin a manicure and leave you with stained hands. Having already got blue grout up my finger nails whilst helping my youngest private student (age 7) at the weekend, the addition of lithographic ink ensured the usual strange looks from WHSmith staff when I picked up my sewing magazine later in the day.

Soon I was happily filling the drying racks. What was I printing? A black and white wagtail bird, with a butterfly, and some daisies for making cards. Pictures will follow when I have finished, as I am only on the second layer, and these prints will have four different turns on the press before they are done.

Meantime I have had a big illustration project land on my work table, different company, I will show you when it is finished, but suffice it to say that this one has a distinctly Welsh feel! Illustrations come with deadlines, so prints and other artwork are on the back burner, it's all juggling as usual.

Good news to end with: Summer came early for a few days in Suffolk, which made me very happy, but perhaps not as happy as Gimlet who for some reason has taken to dust baths, like some kind of large bird, followed by basking happily in the garden...