This series of block prints began in May 2004, partially in response to being
selected as the featured artist for Amphora, Number 135, the journal of
the Alcuin Society, and partly just because I wanted to. I consider many of my
pen and ink drawings to be one step short of being a block print, as the
images have already been selected, focussed, filtered, and presented as simply
as a block print would be. Some drawings are intended to be used as the
template for a block print. I just hadn't previously taken the time to start
cutting them.
Tools I typically use for lino cutting: X-acto knife with 011 blade; palm gouge; U or V hand gouge.
My antique J. Smart press (originally called a copying press).
A vertical assembly of the components that I use for printing.
A planholder drawer full of relief print blocks and copper etching plates (upper right).
I enjoy the quiet workmanship involved in cutting a block, and the
mental rigour necessary to decide what to cut and what to leave - all
of it in the negative, and hopefully mirrored before starting to cut
the block. Making the prints is another enjoyable physical process, one that
connects me to centuries of printmakers, with its slow repetitive pace of
rolling out the ink, placing the paper on the block, pressing the print,
peeling it off the block to see the results, placing it to dry, then
re-inking the block for the next print.
I recently discovered that the J. Smart Company in Brockville, Ontario made my
press. Their foundry was established in 1860. In 1880 the Gill brothers joined the business.
In the late 1890's the company bought Gardiner Tool of Montreal, whose logo was a G in a diamond
(4 sided). Smart kept using the diamond-G logo, presumably for continued brand recognition.
A number of snakes hand-tinted with Pitt india ink brush pens.
ORIGINAL LIMITED EDITION RELIEF PRINTS
Note: prints are generally shown in chronological order, starting with most recent
