From the outset, I had a desire to create sumptuous yet subtle linocuts that combined the delicacy of oil painting with clean, layered relief printing. As my practice developed I found myself experimenting with carving and printing multiple layers to create a rich tapestry of texture and saturation.
I became especially drawn to trying to recreate the behaviour of light falling on or through form and how the balance of colour and tone evokes three-dimensional space. Recently, refraction has become and obsession, with my practice focusing on the interplay between the symmetry of glass vessels and the discordant tangles of stems and home grown flowers distorted through and interacting with orderliness.
My printmaking process has now evolved to the point where although I still carve an intricate key block at the beginning, its importance as a binding scaffold for the other layers has diminished almost entirely and, if it is present at all, it is usually buried as a early tone under two dozen or so other layers of varying transparency.
I proof all the colour layers relentlessly until all the varying hues and tones achieve my initial vision. I use Lawrence's linseed oil relief printmaking inks on HP Saunders Waterford watercolour paper because it gives a fine flat surface that can tolerate multiple layers of ink. I carve using a small 'v' shaped tool and scalpels. I print on my Harry F. Rochat Albion Press at home in Norfolk and I use the L shape corner technique to register my work, making alignment marks on the reverse.