2

Five for England:

Plan of the National Gallery, London,

Level 3

340 x 530mm

Four blocks

£325

I began looking at plans of buildings. These are ‘abstract’ shapes but they are also ‘real’. Use the plan of the National Gallery and you can’t change the shape to suit your design.

3

A Cottage in Wales

75 x 100mm

£80

We rented a holiday barn on the outskirts of Brecon. I sketched the hills from the grounds and through a series of redraws created the final image. It might look abstract, but the cottage gives it away.

4

Alhambra

50 x 235mm

Three blocks

£100

Down the valley from the Palace and up the other side to the Abaicín district. There is this view of the Alhambra Palace on the hill opposite. Although the panorama is realistic, my design input was to keep the foreground and the valley behind black, to make it a design of black and white stripes.

5

Cézanne and John sketching outside the

Café des Arts, Annecy

250 x 400mm

One block, 2-colour,    reduction print

£150

Lake Annecy is in the French Alps. This square was a spot that seemed to have everything. A museum, an art gallery and a café amongst other delights. My son John and I did some sketching. I didn’t think I was a good subject for inclusion so I substituted Cézanne who painted the lake in 1896.

6

Chairman Miaow

75 x 100mm

£50

Cats are a popular subject amongst wood engravers. This was my contribution when I became Chairman of the Society of Wood Engravers.

7

Dark Energy

270 x 450mm

£325

8

Time & Space

390 x 210mm

Four blocks, reduction print

NFS

Four blocks, cut and printed five times. Time runs from left to right. Space is created from top to bottom.

9

Twelve Days of

Christmas

160 x 210mm

£80

The Society of Wood Engravers Christmas card for 2012.

10

Made in Taiwan

150 x 200mm

£75

This is the lettering from a box in which was housed a ‘Rose Metal Arch’.  I liked the letterpress printing.

11

Miles Ahead

440 x 180mm

Five blocks

NFS

This was the first print which put together a ‘collage’ of images, although they are all engraved.

12

Montpelier

150 x 360mm

Two blocks

£250

The two blocks were originally arranged as Divisadero in 2001. Unhappy with it, I reworked it and renamed it after the area of Bristol.

13

The White Horse 2

300 x 370mm

£200

There are two white horses. David Jones and Eric Ravilious came to mind.

14

Out and About

100 x 120mm

£75

Named after a jazz track by John Surman.

15

Gaudí’s Guernica

250 x 500mm

Three blocks

£150

Subtitle: A rearrangement of the 161 pieces of Picasso’s Guernica into a Catalan Dragon mosaic as an apology to Gaudi for the destruction by fire of his Barcelona Sagreda Familia crypt and workshop by Republicans, on the first day of the Civil War, 20 July, 1936.

16

Dark Corners

150 x 175mm

£195

An early abstract. The title comes from a track by John Surman.

17

Duet for Six

310 x 255mm

Two blocks, reduction print

£325

The two blocks are printed first in yellow and then black. A total of six printings.

18

Isola Bella, Lake Maggiore

160 x 210mm

£100

This beautiful island is in Lake Maggiore, north Italy, and is dominated by a palace and gardens. It’s interesting to try and form an image that is on the cusp between realistic and abstract. The image is angled as if it was a postcard, lying on the table.

19

Lucky Seven

210 x 150mm

One block and a digital print

£195

The first experiment with printing a digital image and overprinting a wood engraving. The photo is of ‘Lucky Lindbergh’.

20

I cannot engrave you… but I love you

125 x 98mm  •  One block and a plate

£80

Edward Burne-Jones drew an affectionate cartoon of his friend William Morris engraving, which is the basis for my print. The title comes from the oil painting by Morris of his wife Janey. He wrote on the back, ‘I cannot paint you, but I love you’.

21

Quad Two

203 x 203mm

Reduction print

£195

I like to arrive at abstract shapes by the use of different techniques. The original image was cut, without pre-drawing, into a piece of black mountboard with a scalpel. Peel off the top layer of paper and the design appears.

22

Tenby

160 x 210mm

£80

A favourite place for family holidays when the boys were small. My version of the harbour squashes everything up a little, just to concentrate the image.

23

This is a Wood Engraving

190 x 230mm

One block and a plate

£80

Wood engravings can often be confused with woodcuts. This version of Magritte’s original should clarify things once and for all.

24

Playing Games with Nicholson

300 x 170mm

One block and a plate

£150

The inspiration for this print came when viewing a Ben Nicholson woodcut – Five Circles, 1934. The ‘joke’ is not that far-fetched. Nicholson loved ball games and was a mean table tennis player. Very mean apparently as he often invited friends to play by his own, somewhat flexible, rules.

25

St Ives

300 x 350mm

Six blocks

NFS

The print is made up of six engravings with a ‘painterly style’ in the main block, and a linocut style in the harbour scene. There are imitation or real versions of work by Nicholson, Wallis, Hepworth and Leach. There’s the famous Porthmeor studios and the front of the Tate Gallery.