The Last King in Riggindale

 It's been a while since I last handprinted a linocut and I'd forgotten how much of a workout it can be. This linocut, a reworking of a much smaller wood engraving is too big to go through my press so it was back to the baren and a wooden spoon. In six hours I managed to print 11 impressions, although I think only 8 of them are good enough to sign and number at this stage so I'll need another session later to print up the number required for the edition. I was planning 20 but I think I'll settle for 10, unless I can get access to a press with a bed big enough to take an A2 sheet of paper.

The Last King in Riggindale

Linocut.

298mm x 421mm

The title refers to the Lake District valley that was the site of the last breeding pair of Golden Eagles in England. 

Exhibition News

 I was pleased to receive a  notification earlier today that my two submissions to the Calderdale Open Art Exhibition have been accepted. The exhibition which runs from the 30th September to the 9th April is held at the Smith Art Gallery in Brighouse, West Yorkshire. Despite the fact that the gallery is in my home town this will be the first time that I have exhibited my work there since I was 7 or 8 years old, when I had a painting of a Hull Trawler shown there in an exhibition of local school childrens art. The only thing I remember about this being visiting the exhibition with my parents and getting really upset because the gallery had labelled the work as the Fighting Trip rather than the Fishing Trip as I had titled it. Anyway the two accepted works are the mezzotints below and as they are both signed and titled below the image there shouldn't be any problems this time.

Where Seven Streams Fall

Sylvan Cathedral

In other news I will be at the Hebden Bridge Print Fair at the Town Hall on the 23rd and 24th September. Local for me, it makes a nice change to only have to travel a couple of miles up the valley from my home. Further afield, I have been invited to take part in Great Print 9 at the Rheged Centre in Penrith, Cumbria. This exhibition runs from the 8th December to 3rd March.