Fenland blues. A linocut printed in seven colours on 300gsm Fabriano 5 HP in an edition of ten. Size approximately 300mm x 205mm. £150.0
It’s a print of the Fenland landscape but inspired by something just a little different from the every agricultural view. We have had some rain, in fact one and a half inches over two days last week and then some steady ‘farmer’s rain’, not to heavy and not to light, just right, as the farmer at the back says. Anyway it’s been cold with a biting wind and consequently down went acres of fleece on the huge fields to keep the first early potatoes warm and protect the young shoots from the frost and persistent cold wind. To stop the wind lifting the fleece and blowing it away thousands of blue plastic bags were filled with soil and used to weight the fleece down where the edges meet. The fleece is a greyish white but when it’s wet it’s quite reflective and after rain the colour of the sky is picked up by the wet surface and the fleece takes on the dominant colour in the sky until it dries out. No doubt Whistler and Turner would be preparing to paint a series of landscapes. I’ve produced one linocut that was drawn straight onto the block with no preparatory working out on paper. It shows too.
John Richardson Lino Prints 