Prints in progress

After several weeks of struggling to produce some new linocuts, I've finally done something that is starting to move the right direction. It's a bit different to what I've done before.

Two-stage reduction linocut, 16 x 16 cm.

There were several aims behind this print:

• First, I wanted to simplify my technique, and product linocuts that actually look like linocuts. Some of the linocuts that I've done before had as many as eight or nine layers. Each layer takes about a day to dry, and so each print takes far too long. So this print has only two layers.
• Second, I wanted to avoid twee landscapes. Pictures of Venice are very nice, but it's about time I did something different.

This print was inspired by several sources:

• the "Revolution on Paper" exhibition of Mexican prints at the British Museum. Powerful use of two colours: red and black. No twee landscapes here.
• the Warhol room at the Tate's Pop Life exhibition, which had a wall of his celebrity portraits.
• and even the way we hung my paintings in groups of four and nine at a recent exhibition. Putting multiple images together creates narratives and relationships between the images that make the total greater than the sum of the parts.

More prints coming soon...