The Oxford Fine Press book fair went well with good sales and appreciative audience. I showed my new unlimited print of The Queen on horseback in front of Windsor Castle . This is presented as a card with one of my poems on the reverse.
This is the title page of the Alphabetarium printed in February 2019. The background is a text by William Morris and the letters are formed by masking the type. Only 10 copies were printed as the letters are quite difficult to print.
This is my latest greeting card. The background is of a leaf cut out of plywood and the tree with its “keys” is a linocut. The story about these common trees gives something of their history.
A print from 30 years ago recently turned up and is appropriate to this time of remembrance.
Now I’m doing print of the Tower of London with poppies in the moat. Did the drawing back in January and its taken me 10 months to get round to cutting the lino. Here’s the first block.
In the summer I designed a card for the poppy cut in the chalk hill at Fovant, Wilts.
I’ve designed and printed an Oak tree which has two versions, one with spring leaves and a second with autumn foliage. The text is about oaks in general, or some with the song “Hearts of Oak”.
Sycamores continue the theme of magnificent English Trees.
Three Cheers for Three Chairs. They will be exhibited over the weekend of 6/9 December behind the Oxo tower. Really they are sculptures, but in the form of chairs. They are also practical seats.
I am at present printing the English version of The Ash Grove. This compliments the Welsh card which I did earlier. This time a second colour – yellow – has been added to the leaves.
I have just sent off my contribution to the British Printing Society. This is a pattern of ink blots, known as the Roaschach ink blot test.
Fo
vant Badge Society Sunday 7 July,2019. Drumhead Service with book display and greeting cards of chalk-hill figures.
Then the Oxford Guild of Printers is having a book fair Saturday 2 November 2019, 10-5 at Oxford Brookes University.
This year I went to stay in Venice for 4 weeks and printed at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica. This was my third opportunity to use their wonderful collection of presses. I used a lithography press to print an Abecedarium with 26 views of Venice. It will be very different from the first book printed there in 2014. My task now is to print the text about each view on their reverses.
Ideas keep flowing about Venetian pavements. Come back for a series of pictures showing how this is progressing.