Artwork description:

Who can resist collecting and bringing home treasures from the beach? Especially in winter when the storms cast all sorts of things along the shoreline. I have a choice of beaches close by to wander along, both sandy and rocky, which all seem to have their own particular shells and pebbles. This collection was a winter gathering from Newborough Beach on Anglesey, I liked the colours, they were just the same as on a fragment of ancient lime plaster that I had picked up that morning from the attic floor of my 500 year old home - it had layers of pigmented limewash in surprisingly strong shades of blue and red.

This print is a reduction Linocut, made by cutting and overprinting successive layers of ink from a single block of Lino, until it is reduced to the last few details. I make very limited editions when I use the reduction method, usually ten prints or less and when finished they cannot be repeated as the block has been destroyed in the making.

I use water-based relief inks, blending them to achieve the colours that I like to use and I print onto traditional printmakers paper, either Somerset Satin or a French milled paper. The paper is a soft white with a velvety surface and may have the deckled edge on one side, depending on where it is cut from the full sheet. I use an old Victorian book press to take the impression or rub by hand with a Japanese baren if the print is too big to fit into the press.

Your print will be carefully prepared for shipping, wrapped in acid free tissue paper and rolled inside a sturdy cardboard tube, cushioned with tissue at either end and securely sealed.

Materials used:

Water-based inks, milled printmaking paper, rubber rollers and an iron press.

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