Linocuts

I’ve developed an interest in linocut printmaking over the last 3 years. My first series was this set of 6 small square blocks, which complimented my painting series Commute.

I immediately enjoyed the linocut process: creating an image by deciding which areas to leave untouched and which to carve out. It is definitive and makes for a stark binary image.

The energy of the physical mark-making process is retained in the lino block and reproduced when printed.

I tend to draw onto the lino with pencil before cutting. The cutting takes a lead from the drawing but is its own thing. I try to make marks with a liveliness that defies anything too robotic.

Since that first series – which includes this piece below (Mount St.) – I have explored similar imagery in linocuts as I have in painting, and find that both mediums inform each other.