Half Way Point on the Giant Macmillan Linocut

The giant linocut project is already at the half way stage! After another 6 hours of printing today at Hot Bed Press, the prints are drying, having been transformed by the third colour.

Tomorrow I will hand print the spot colours to define the hot air balloons and poppies!

Below you can see the development of the print so far, in images - as the design slowly emerges.

Plain A1 lino in my home studio

Transferrin the design and starting to cut the gutter

Lots of cutting - lino pieces everywhere

Printing colour 1 at Hot Bed Press

 

Prints drying at Hot Bed Press

 

Printing colour 2 gradation

Lots of rollers and lots of space to print the colour 2 gradation

 

To see a video of the second colour stage, please check out this link to my website, as I have not been able to add the video here.

The print at colour 2 - ready to go through the press again

 

Printing colour 3 at Hot Bed Press

 

The lino plate, rollers and print - today's workstation!

 

To see more of my work, please check out my website: www.carolynmurphy.co.uk where you will also find an online Shop with currently available work. Thanks!

 

Ispired by Picasso in Malaga

Finally, after years of visiting Malaga, I got to the Picasso Museum this time. I'm really glad I did. The building alone is stunning - and much larger than I'd expected, housing the Collection and an exhibition running until 21 February 2016, called Picasso 'German Records'. Printmaking was well represented in both sections and the press used by Picasso in Paris, was also in pride of place on loan.

You aren't allowed to take pictures of the works themselves, so the images below are sadly of postcards or flyers, so the quality is not great. My favourite images were the large linocuts 'Portrait of a Young Girl, after Cranach the Younger'.

5 colours on plates 64 x 53.5cm, produced in 1958. There were also some great etchings, sugar lift aquatints and drypoint original prints. I found them inspiring in their challenge of technique as much as the powerful images themselves.

 It's a beautiful city. If you haven't been, perhaps it's time to plan it in...

Strumble Head Lighthouse variations

Day 3 of the Ian's workshop and the 4 colour reduction linocut of Strumble Head lighthouse in Pembrokeshire suddenly came together. Because we used graduations of 2 colours on 3 of the 4 layers, there look to be more colours in the prints than you might expect. The colours were mixed by Ian and standard to all 3 of the workshop participants, so that we focused more on tone than colour - a useful exercise. As some of the graduations were reversed, there are variations in the series of 4 prints. They each have lessons for the next time, but I'm pleased with the results. Let me know if you have a preference!

Linocut of Portnahaven on Islay

Day 1 of Ian Phillips' workshop in Machynlleth, we worked on a black and white lino cut. I chose to work up an image of Islay that I sketched last year during the Islay Whisky Festival, looking over the small cove at Portnahaven. I've included below the print, the plate, the simplified sketch used to translate it to lino, the original sketch - and finally a reference photo of the same spot. They reflect the many adjustments and choices in developing a lino print...

The Old Parsonage Didsbury - Spectrum Exhibition

I'm now at the final preparations stage for our Spectrum exhibition at The Old Parsonage in Didsbury, Manchester. There will be a mix of older and new work. I've been finishing off some new prints this week at Hot Bed Press, to make sure they will be in the show, including a new 3 colour lino print of Manchester bees and a large scale lively and chaotic screen print:

I'll also be including "Scottish Sheep" exhibited previously at Stockport Art Gallery and An Talla Solais in Ullapool.

We are expecting a good turnout at the Preview on Saturday afternoon (7 Feb) 2 - 4 pm, so really looking forward to Spectrum, the first exhibition I've been involved in for a while.