Argemone (wild Prickly poppy)- hand-colored linocut on mulberry paper, 6″x6″
It’s been pouring since, I think, March- not that I’m complaining-so this morning I cut some rudbeckia, sunflowers, daisy fleabane, Queen Anne’s lace and some kind of sedge or rush, I confess ignorance and invite identification. This will be a sketch toward a linoleum cut with a goldfinch added in with the flowers.
Linoleum cuts have been added to the mix over here;
I’m trying to get a handle on it. It’s a nice, low tech way of making prints, and favors the strong, simple design rather than complex detail.
Argemone- original sketch in felt tip pen
I’ve done a couple this week and added color after the print was made
(back of the spoon, water-based black ink, mulberry paper), using ordinary watercolor and a sable brush. My goal is to learn to do reduction prints: multiple color achieved by cutting away parts of the block for each color run. Your edition is necessarily limited; the block is destroyed by the process. A great tutorial for the process can be seen here.
I’ll post more as I go. This is a perfect project for bringing the outdoors in, all except the rain.
Drawing The Motmot 
Well, you know what they say.
When the rain comes,
they run and hide their heads
They might as well…cut linoleum
Sounds like you’ve got the same weather as we’re having over here in the UK – rain, more rain, winds and — rain. Love your blog, great stuff.
Hey, isn’t linocut great? I have a bit of a wrist issue, so I stick with the easy-carve rubber slabs; you don’t get quite as much detail that way, but it’s easier to cut. I love the poppies! I had never heard of a prickly poppy – at first glance I thought it was a Matilja poppy, which is my favorite flower.
I noticed the wrist(and hand) strain, too, perhaps it’s me trying to push too hard. I’m trying a new linoleum and it seems to be a bit softer.
You’re right, Biophemera, the argemone looks a LOT like Matilija poppy, which I love (we can’t grown them here, too cold in the winter, but that may change). The flower has the same crepe paper petals. It’s a wildflower here and graciously landed in my garden, where I cultivate it and get some outstanding blooms and foliage.
I hope you’re not getting the flooding in the UK that they’re getting to our south in Texas- they had something like 16 inches of rain yesterday around Austin!
Unfortunately half of England is literally under water (luckily not where I live), with some deaths, people homeless, the Air Force rescuing people, the Army distributing humanitarian aid and half the country’s crops destroyed. No end in sight, either.
You might want to try putting the linoleum on a heating pad set on low. Linoleum gets warm and cuts like butter …
Lovely work!