I actually took this photograph the day of my first vaccine injection, 15th March. I had to go to Stithians Showground over near Truro, so I looked for somewhere in that direction to go and explore afterwards. It was a gorgeous day and Helford Passage was just beautiful. I had a lovely afternoon exploring, and then I was very ill for three days.
Photo and finished print. There was a lot to get my head around in the making of this print. I loved the photo so much it took me a while before I felt ready to tackle it.
Of all the photos I took that day, and there were a few! I love the composition of this one. The lines in the rocks, the blue and brown, the strong contrasts of the shadows and the trees on the top.
Firstly I flipped the photograph and then drew the plan of my picture onto the lino.
Then I marked with a white crayon my first cuts. The bits I wanted to keep the white of the paper.
For my first colours I printed the sky and the foreground at the same time.
I've no photos of the first couple of layers of print as you really can't see much.
2nd colours of rocks, pale blue/grey and a pale sandy brown
starting to see the rocks build up layer on layer
the brown rocks in the background are covered in old barnacles and I wanted to get that gritty texture.
I printed a green layer to get the algae look on the rocks
Then a brown layer all over apart from the one yellow pebble at the bottom
a darker green and grey
a dark grey
and finally a black
below you can see the difference the black makes on the middle print.
finished
15 colours printed
Reduction linocut
Helford Passage
Edition size 11
Printed image size 37 x 52cm
Paper size 76 x 57cm
Paper Sommerset satin 300gsm
Available to buy here