On-Line Linocutting Class

I have been making a linocut this weekend. My linocuts seem to be getting larger and larger. The one I worked on , on the weekend was inspired by "indienne " fabric produced by Steiner in 1880 or thereabouts. The image below  is cropped from a book I have entitled, Andrinople: Le Rouge Magnifique printed Editions de la Martiniere in 1995 ( and I am sure I did not pay what Abe books have listed it for). I think of all the  antique french fabrics, and I do love Toile de Jouy's, I love the Indienne fabrics for their decorative elements. This particular image really reminded my of a waratah and may have been inspired  by a waratah ( a native Australian flower) as the French people had an ongoing love affair with Australian flora since  samples first came back from the la Perouse voyage in the late 1700's.

There is incredible detail in this printed fabric and I have found that  printing with lino on fabric at best lends itself to two colours ( a paler background overprinted with a darker foreground) However I do know I can get in some of that colour detail with accent stitching.

So I made the linocut ( it measures 12 inches x 12 inches , 30 cms x 30 cms)... I have been  dreaming of some new linocutting tools- the Pfeil carving tools are wonderful. I bought one when I was in Florence as one was  all I could afford...the one in the image is a Lyons cutting tool, and the  knob ends sit in your palm beautifully making it easier to carve I find. I drew the image onto the lino- I drew the image free hand as I did not exactly want to copy the  indienne printed fabric.

  From the workshop I did in Florence earlier this year and in particular from Gianni Verna I learnt, to colour in what you want to leave- it allows you to see the graphic qualities in much better detail and also avoids carving accidents where lines are fine.I have started carving the lino and below is the first print, which I found disappointing because there was  not sufficient contrast between the various area of the design- so back to some more carving....

The resulting print after some more carving, I can already see this will be much more interesting than the first print once the stitching goes in especially around the central flower area and  also by defining the leaves further.

Anyway these are some of the things you can learn on my on-line course which starts 22 September 2013. There are 4 pdf files delivered over an 8 week period with all sorts of exercises to try and I am going to trial a FB group this time  as the contact is  much more immediate than with Yahoo.The cost of the course is $60AUS- simply email me if you are interested .

And last but not least...  I spend sunday mornings ( early) finding new  things on the internet and catching up on favourite blogs. I am really not sure how I stumbled on Maggie Salcedo , a French illustrator of children's and teenage books, but it was kind of love at first sight. I managed to find her La Mission du Biquet in the Netherlands of all places ( as other listings were quite expensive) at a really good price and it arrived last week.... well all I can say is more love. Her style is said to be Art Deco, though there are quite lovely  individual touches which  also take her a little outside that genre. Anyway there has been a bit of a revival in her work with some exhibitions in the early 2000's- I tried drawing the quite lovely stylised face from the cover of La Mission du Biquet , whilst our cat Mitsou, grumpily looks on. She loves it when I work in the sunroom, but most of all she would rather sit right on top of where I am drawing...