The Littlest Falcon

The Littlest Falcon is run by printmaker and painter Merlyn Griffiths. Based in her garden studio in North East England, Merlyn works in linocut and creates original prints and greetings cards. Her work mostly focuses on the depiction of animals, and she has produced prints of creatures great and small.

The daughter of an art teacher, Merlyn grew up making various forms of art every day. After drawing and painting her way through school and college, a degree in History of Art led into an MA in Stained Glass Conservation and Heritage Management. Since 2012, Merlyn has been a member of the York Glaziers Trust team, working on the conservation of the stained glass of York Minster and historic buildings around the UK. Following a long hiatus from artistic practice, in early 2018 Merlyn discovered a love of linocut, and has not stopped printing since. Now working in York part time, she spends the rest of her week in her studio.

A rural upbringing and lifetime of rescue pets ignited Merlyn’s love to draw animals. As a child, horses were a favourite subject, but today, hares, foxes, cats (both big and domestic) have taken a lead. Using Caligo Safewash and Hawthorn oil based inks, Merlyn either hand burnishes with a wooden spoon, or uses her Woodzilla or XCut presses, favouring Stonehenge and Fabriano papers.

“I feel as though I have really found my printmaking style over the past year. When I started I produced a lot of detailed and lifelike monochrome work, which I loved to make, but which I stuck to because I wasn’t sure I had the confidence to branch out into the more illustrative style of my sketches and paintings.”

Merlyn spent some time exploring hand tinting, multi-block, and reduction techniques, which encouraged her to introduce more colour into her prints. “Since then, my drawing style has become much looser, and this has resulted in a more stylised finished piece” describes the printmaker. She continues “I love to look back at my earlier work and see how my style and confidence have developed, and I am really excited to see where printmaking takes me next”.

Recent projects have included designing an advertising image for a London pop-up restaurant, being selected as one of the printmakers involved in the sixth @im_printed print exchange, and her designs being used for the RSPB 2020 Charity Christmas Card.

www.thelittlestfalcon.co.uk
@the_littlest_falcon

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