A Light at the End of the Tunnel

One of the interesting and frustrating effects of using broad graphic strokes to draw and print is that sometimes the line between understanding and incoherence is just, well, just a line. One old fellow looked at the St. John’s print in my previous post and said: “What do we have here? A pirate ship?” People [...]

Back Porch, Queen’s Road, St. John’s, Nfld.

This is the centerpiece of my 2008 series. It measures about 9 x 11″, making it the largest print this year. I based this cut on a drawing I did back in 1988 when I spent a brilliant summer in St. John’s, Newfoundland house-sitting for my sister and writing a ghastly novel. Marie’s townhouse was [...]

Big, Big Sea

This cut, along with the remainders in the series, are more personal and related to my life, as opposed to exercises and experiments. Big, Big Sea is based on a photo I took in 1993 at Peggy’s Cove of my sister Marie and daughter Meg staring out to sea. Aside from the few white lines [...]

The Castle Keep

While this cut is officially part of the 2008 series, it really dates back over a year earlier, to the spring of 2007. It was a doodle executed during a particularly riveting Merrickville Artists’ Guild meeting. I liked it enough to cut the lino, but didn’t get around to printing it until this past fall. [...]

Chandelier

It’s easy for those who know to jump to the conclusion that this is one of the hundreds of chandeliers hand-made by Peter, Holly’s father, while he had his reproduction lighting business. But it’s not. During my tenure for The Upper Canadian, I photographed thousands of antiques of all kinds. Most of the shots were [...]

Arch March

Another example of experimentation with beats in architectural form.

Cupolas

Another in the theme of architectural lino cuts, this was a found image that satisfied my need to have repetitive beats in compositions. My most  (commercially) successful print was of the roof line of one of Merrickville’s pubs, a great 19th century three story pile capped off by nine dormers, so I liked the idea of these [...]

A Visit from Hugh

Today was a fine day on the press. It began with pulling apart my roller assembly and scrubbing away at the rollers with a deglazing compound. It will be the first of many sessions as I try to restore the integrity of the rollers, which have become smooth as glass over the past three years. [...]

Daffodils

Okay, it’s my first foray into the garden and is not my favourite of this series, but you have to start somewhere. Based on a photograph from the garden last spring. The background I created on the fly, and it has, very definitely, a white line feel to it. Maybe I should call it “Daffodils [...]

Femme Fatale I

A long time ago, I owned a Zippo lighter. Although I’ve been straight these past 20 years, I still miss smoking.
This is the first in a series of girls who are bad, but in a good way, and very much inspired by the highly defined art of Sin City. Indeed, this lady’s only apparent vice [...]