Monday 21 January 2013

Winter woods - adventures in linoprinting part 1


Sketchbook page ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec


This weekend I thought I would try my hand at a linoprint, something I haven't done for a long time. I thought I would start small and simple and the birch trees seemed to me to be an ideal subject to give it a go. After doing a couple of quick pencil sketches to decide on the main shapes I got started.

I had a piece of lino but it was so old I wasn't sure if it would be too hard and crumbly to carve. Luckily it didn't seem to bad and I spent an hour or so happily cutting away. I was very excited when it came to proofing the block and mixed up a rich dark sepia colour from my prussian blue and burnt sienna. I printed a couple of copies and sat back to look.



1st proof
As giraffes


The image looked quite busy for it's small scale, I had over done it with the trees and needed to reduce the number. In passing His Nibbs commented that the trunks looked rather like giraffe necks. As you can see, whilst it was so busy, he had a point ;o)

Out came the cutting tools and I removed a few of the trunks to make a bit more space. The second proof was much more my intention. I think the extra space gives the eye a bit more room to find a path through the forest.




2nd proof


I started playing around with the ink colours mixing them and making graduated colours. I loved this soft smokey colour and settled on that printing up a small batch to experiment with further. The image feels wintery and rather topical whilst we shiver here in the UK. We have had a little snow in Dorset and it feels like we may be in with a chance for some more.



Winter woods linoprint 14x15cm ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec



Just a quick mention, this is the last week to see the exhibition 'Light Space Time' at the Red House Museum in Christchurch. The last day is Saturday. Due to the snowy weather, please do check with the museum for any changes to their opening times and please stay safe whilst traveling. To see the Red House Museum website and opening hours please click here .

2 comments:

RH Carpenter said...

I'm enjoying and following your printmaking, Lisa. Interesting that they became giraffes at one time - who knows what else you could do with them :) Be safe in the snow.

Lisa Le Quelenec said...

Thank you Rhonda, I'm open to anything during this month of play ;o) Hopefully version 2 look more like trees. All our snow has gone today and we are back to rain. The birds look much happier in the garden.