Review of 2023 in pictures

Here’s a gallery of prints and images from this year.

My main highlights from this year was having work accepted into The Real Public Art Show (Stockport Open), the first Bury Open exhibition and the 102nd Stockport Art Guild exhibition.

2024 marks 10 years since I started this printmaking project / blog, and in that time I have created a catalogue of printmaking which I am going to present in a future exhibition. The project is not over yet, as I will be producing some new artworks in the coming months. Watch this space 👀

By the way have a happy and relaxing Christmas and here’s to 2024 and more creativity. Cheers 🥳🎄☃️🎇🎁

Vernon Park Linocut update

I printed the last colour on the Vernon park bench linocut recently. I added a light grey ink to the inset panels on the bench. Scroll down to view the different colour layers and the final print.

Linocut and etching work in progress

Today, I have been continuing to work on two plates; a Linocut based on a Vernon Park and an etching of The Blossoms pub.

‘Crowther’s Family Gift bench’
(A4 Reduced Linocut)

I started work on the linocut this morning by removing small sections all over the linoleum sheet in preparation for a new layer colour. I decided to add a mix of burnt umber, white and yellow to create a sandy colour. I reckon I have at least 2 more colours left to print which I will be adding soon which will be light green ink for the foliage and highlights on the bench possibly white ink.

After lunch, I continued to work on another print this time an etching depicting The Blossoms pub. One issue from last time working on this print is that I discovered while printing a proof of the etching, there was a white spot on the print where the aquatint had for some reason been removed. As you can see in the photo below of the test print, this was very noticeable on the print, so I had to remedy this before I could continue printing.

Blemish on the print where the aquatint has been removed.

‘The Blossoms’ (Etching Aquatint)

I added aquatint resin again to the plate and then using stop out, I covered all the plate apart from the section where the blemish was located. The dark section on the print is where I left the plate exposed to the strong acid for 5 minutes. I then printed another proof and the result is shown in the photo below.

The Blossoms poof print after fixing the blemish.

I then worked on burnishing the plate to lighten areas where required. In my next blog post I will show the finished print.

Crowther’s family gift linocut

Here is the latest print I have been working on recently which is a reduction linocut depicting a quirky stone bench located in the rose garden of Vernon park. More prints to follow soon…

‘Crowther’s family gift’ (Reduction Lino cut) Work in progress.

Vernon Hall print

Last weekend, I started work on another. Enron park related print. This time, I created a dry point print of Vernon hall using a technique to blend colours on the printing plate.

The technique I use is to add blocks of coloured ink to the areas such as the lawn in the foreground. I do this for each area adding small amounts of ink used by a fine small paint brush. I then use scrim cloth to remove excess ink and then blend the ink by lightly going across the paint in a horizontal direction right to left (as I am left-handed). I then remove any further ink with tissue paper. I try and leave some excess ink in small areas to add some contrast. I then print the plate running it through the press at least once.

I created a number of prints from coloured blends to sepia and using black ink. See gallery below.