Hot off the press April 2024!

'Mud Flats' came about because I came across an image with a silhouetted row of seagulls standing on mud flats. The image immediately suggested linocut to me. The first design I created was an unexpected hit (almost sold out) but it had its limitations, because it was slim and panoramic in proportions.

With 'Mud Flats 2' I have made improvements. The artwork is bigger, and its proportions are more conventional for mounting and framing. This time it is a multi-block original linocut print from a limited edition of 20, on 130 gsm Clairefontaine Simili Japon acid-free paper.

The foreground blocks (printed last, using blue-black artists' quality oil-based printing ink) depict the row of birds in silhouette and also more gulls wheeling about as they come in to land. I have deliberately left some of the 'chatter' on the upper block (ridges of lino that pick up ink and print marks) to suggest the movement of the seagulls in flight.

The background blocks (which are printed first, using artists' quality oil-based printing ink in a blend of pale blues and greens) provide a canvas of textures in a paler colour. They depict the watery ridges of the mud flats, more birds in flight and suggest a distant industrial skyline, with its flues and stacks.

So the subject is saying something about nature's resilience in the context of an industrial environment.

The print is sold unframed, for ease and economy of shipping. However, it is despatched in a commercially-manufactured A4 size mount set, which comprises a mitre-cut textured off-white mount, backing board and cellophane bag. So not only is your purchase all ready to present as a gift (if that is your plan with it) but the mount set, together with other robust packaging, protects the print during shipping. There is plenty of margin for framing and the mount set can be discarded, if you have other plans for the print.