Mountain of ink

Glad to have finished another addition to the linocut series, "Cnoc Lios Uachtair". The inspiration for this came from hill-walking out in the wilds of Connemara in Ireland's West a few weekends back. Staggering back down another mountain, this vision of Cnoc Lios Uachtair appeared above the tree line with a voluminous laughter of fluffy clouds running up its back and leaping off its head into the sky above. With batteries flat on the camera all I had was a mental snap-shot to bring back home and squeeze out the end of a pencil for the initial sketch. Below shows some of the process to the final print that was inked up this evening. Lino - Lovely.

The result of some six or so hours getting the design from pencil sketch to print-ready. The final carved block makes me smile. Deliciously tactile.

Consistency is everything and a keen ear lets you know when you're good to go. The 'barren' being used is the trusty back of wooden spoon. It can be tricky enough getting the balance right for applying enough pressure to lift enough ink for good coverage and avoiding shifting the paper out of registration. Vee-oh-lah! The final print. A run of these will be going down for Christmas order in the next week. If you're interested, let me know.