Leading on nicely from my previous post. This newly completed linocut may come as something of a surprise to anyone familiar with my usual work. A couple of years ago I was approached about a possible commission for an illustration of Luddites. Not my usual choice of subject matter but I did some research and worked up some rough drawings. As it turned out for a variety of reasons mainly related to the fact that everything fell apart during the Covid pandemic the commission came to nothing. The rough drawings remained in my sketchbooks and I did no further work on them at the time. Something about them kept nagging in my mind though and I kept looking back at the drawings. I'd taken one of them quite a long way to being worked out as a print and leaving them at this stage felt like unfinished business. So a couple of weeks ago I took out the drawing and transferred it to a block of lino and made a small edition of just 4 prints, mainly for my own benefit with no expectation of it being particularly saleable. In a departure from my usual pastoral references this print has influences of Soviet Era propaganda posters with a little bit of DC Comics thrown in for good measure.
Come Cropper Lads of High Renown
6 Colour Reduction Linocut
300mm x 210mm
Edition of 4
detail
The title of the print comes from the first line of The Croppers Song. Allegedly written and first performed by the Luddite John Walker at a February 1812 meeting of the Liversedge and Huddersfield Croppers, held at the Shears Arms at Hightown, in Liversedge. Only a couple of miles over the hill from my home where this print was made, the Shears Arms is still open as a Public House.
