Creating the ‘Conker Hunt’ Lino Reduction Print
Inspiration Walk Photo from Jesmond Dene, Newcastle Upon Tyne
My new original limited edition Lino print for November 2024 is now here!
Here’s how it came together…
The Inspiration Behind The Print
Don’t you just love lazy autumn days spent kicking up colourful leaves in the woods and searching for conkers.
I spend many hours during the autumn on walks with my family picking up interesting leaves and searching for little treasures. We love searching for conkers, spotting nests and playing Pooh Sticks in all weathers.
I wanted to capture the childlike joy of discovering a conker among the carpet of leaves so have hidden some amongst the leaves. How many conkers can you find?
It wasn’t until I started to make the print that I thought back to the autumnal paintings of Gustav Klimt (a master I’ve long admired) and that made me all the more excited to create my own ode to joy bringing sycamore trees.
The Reduction Print Process
Prep sketches for ‘Conker Hunt’
Lino reduction print has become my favourite way to work over the last few years. When I explain it to people, it blows their mind how I can work this backwards process out as I go but it’s that uncertainty that is part of the appeal for me.
With this piece I really wanted to work more instinctively than I have in the past so I only traced off the sky, trunk outlines and bracken. After that, the rest was carved without lines - it was such a freeing way to work.
Creating a reduction print like this involves starting with plain artist’s Lino to print the sky then carving away where I want the sky colour to stay.
I print the next colour (brown in this case) then repeat this with the all the other colours until it feels done. In this case it was 8 layers…
I’ll be honest - at the brown layer I was not convinced! I have learned the importance of trusting the process though and as soon as I peeled back the next layer (copper) with the slivers of brown detailing left behind, I knew this one was going to be a winner.
If you look really closely below, you’ll see a real array of greens - from deep dark greens to mid greens and a chartreuse. After them came the bright yellow, which really lofted the whole piece and added exciting highlights to the leafy floor.
Some of the Stages of the Print…
When I peeled back the application of the red blend, I was pretty sure the print was finished but I slept on it before deciding. My followers seemed to agree with me too…
Bring ‘Conker Hunt’ Home
It has taken about a month to finish and I have only printed ten of these original pieces and they cannot be reproduced as there is very little of the block left.
I am so in love with this one that I’m keeping one for myself. Grab one of the other 9 for yourself while stocks last.
