This month we’re stoked to present a selection of relief print projects from the members of our POP community. Relief printing is a method where a printing block is carved into and then used to press onto paper and make a print. The non-recessed surface will leave ink on the paper, whereas the carved areas will not. Our members have used materials including linoleum and wood to bring stories and imagery to life. Check out the wonderful prints below:
Kerry Pagdin: Linocut Mini Prints
Kerry Pagdin of Wayward Citizen enjoys using up lino and paper scraps from larger projects to create mini prints. “Making smaller relief prints is freeing, because you aren’t as invested in the outcome; you can be playful and make mistakes. And it’s rewarding to use up lino and paper offcuts rather than toss them out,” says the artist. Kerry’s recent mini prints include images of animal skulls and bones, fish, insects, feathers, and willow branches. She carves the images into lino and prints them on heavyweight handmade paper, using an etching press.
Caroline Erolin: The Other Side
The Other Side is a linocut print of a snake/snake skeleton, hand carved in traditional battleship grey lino by printmaker Caroline Erolin. Initially printed by hand onto natural Thai Mulberry paper, later versions have been printed using a Gunning etching press. This is a highly detailed print and took some time to carve, with Caroline taking lots of breaks to be sure she didn’t get too impatient with the scales! That said, she does generally find lino carving to be a rather meditative process. The print is loosely based on the pattern of the British Adder and symbolises Caroline’s love of the natural as well as mystical worlds. She’s fascinated with life and death and the spaces in between.
Ridge + Roots: Untitled
This 11” by 11” relief print by Ohio-based Gina of Ridge + Roots is inspired by the four elements; earth, air, fire, and water, and the connection and delicate balance between them. The mandala-style piece is hand printed on a whimsical leafy paper.
Maria Frati: Experimental Linocuts
Maria Frati has recently been pushing the boundaries of what relief printmaking can be, experimenting with these large scale prints. She works intuitively by building compositions through layering linocuts and working reductively, often taking large pieces of linoleum and cutting them up with scissors before carving. “I love to activate compositions with ample color and texture,” says the printmaker. These pieces are inspired by Maria’s deep connection to the natural world and the mapping of possibilities in these spaces.
Sari Majander: Future Feelings
Future Feelings is a portfolio of three 40x45cm woodcut prints on paper completed in 2021. Sari Majander wrote the short texts by hand in exaggerated handwriting and then had them laser-engraved onto plywood. They then carved the letters out with carving tools and printed each plate with a gradient. “With the texts, I was aiming for something that would remain open and unresolved,” says the printmaker. Sari completed the prints at Kellaripress Printmaking Studio in Helsinki.
Charlotte Staunton: The Melt
This collection of prints by Charlotte Staunton celebrates the sublime Leonard Messel Magnolia blossom. She comments; “Childlike in their simplicity, these beautiful blossoms resonated with me and I had to capture them in a print!” The Melt is a multiblock print created using 3 plates, two hessian-backed lino and one Japanese vinyl. Ink was then applied in 3 stages using rollers and brushes.
www.artfinder.com/artist/escapade_prints_design/
Sian Hulse: A Sea Breeze
A Sea Breeze is linocut printmaker Sian Hulse’s largest print to date, which she describes as her “most successful multiblock linocut print”. The 30x40cm print features a mermaid with her signature style ‘swirly’ hair. Sian describes; “I love it so much because it’s printed in my favourite colours; a sapphire blue and turquoise green with a navy outline key block”.
Shelly Brown: POT IT LIKE IT’S HOT
This one’s for all the green fingered, plant mad people out there! This is the first multiblock print by Shelly Brown, and she chucked herself in the deep end with one that is A3 in size. She carved two separate blocks that she designed to layer, using transparent ink to create a third colour when the orange was layered on top of the green. Typical of her signature style, this print focuses on people and our every day. Using this design, Shelly used the second block to print onto seed packets for those that love to gift seeds they have collected from their gardens to loved ones.
www.shellybrownillustration.com
Enea Seregni: Linocut Character Designs
Enea Seregni is mainly known for his horror themed linocuts, however, he describes that he has a “nerdy soul” that often serves as inspiration for his works. Before devoting himself entirely to linocut printing, one of Enea’s dreams was to become a concept artist. In addition to being a fan of fantasy stories, he’s also a regular player of Warhammer tabletop game and videogames such as the Dark Souls saga. Having spent much of his adolescence drawing character designs, in this latest project Enea wanted to achieve a synthesis between these subjects and the linocut technique, also experimenting with watercolours. The idea is to create several others on commission and subsequently collect them in a dedicated artbook.
Amy Mathews: Mushroom Bouquet
Did you know there are more than 14,000 different kinds of mushrooms on our planet? Mushrooms and fungi are the ultimate recyclers and unsung heroes of our natural world, and they look good doing it, too. Mushroom Bouquet is a 5×7″ linocut print on Okawara paper featuring coral, turkey tail, lion’s mane, campanella, orange peel, and faeries bonnets mushrooms/fungi. Created with Speedball Professional Relief Ink in Supergraphic Black in an edition of 20.
Normandie Syken: Puss in Boots
This series by Normandie Syken is a retelling of Puss in Boots set during the NYC punk era. The artist tells us; “The guitarist encounters a magic cat and buys him a pair of boots in the village. The cat then goes on to help him rise to games and forms the greatest punk band Mastercat.” All of the illustrations are carved from a 12×18 or 18×24 pieces of linoleum.
Iris Sautier: Migrants
This woodcut by Iris Sautier was made at a dark time when lots of migrants trying to reach Italy were dying at sea. Pictures of the tragedy were making the headlines on all the newspaper of the world. “I thought this particular photo carried so many emotions, expressing both sadness and despair but also hope, as the poor men in the image are just about to be rescued. I felt that creating a woodcut print of it would give the rawness of the situation justice.”
www.labourgeoiseserigraphe.com
Check out more work by our community and apply to become an Official POP Member at www.members.peopleofprint.com.
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Want to know more about our membership? Give us an email at members@peopleofprint.com.
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