During the countrywide lockdown which our country went through from the end of March, the one thing I missed the most was the open spaces that were so limited in our single bout of daily exercise,.
Walking in the local park definitely helped but the restrictions weighed heavy and while I watched others use their art to lift others and themselves, I felt frozen into inaction. As lovely as having the house full of my family was, it also meant my head was full and the lack of mental space alongside supporting my children though their school work was about as much as my brain could take for those first few weeks.
As I began to use my sketchbook to journal, the cogs began to ease and I started working on a range of lino prints which were based around one of my favourite places to visit; Northumberland.
For the first pass through the press I used dark colours, using narrow rollers to ink each part separately.
I then carved more detail into the lino and printed lighter colours on top of the dark. I enjoyed adding the ink quite heavily and luckily the weather was nice and warm so they did not take too long to dry!
The Escape series has 4 lino prints in it; Open Escape, Sea Escape, Land Escape and Coast Escape.
The series really helped me get going again and I have some paintings and more lino prints to share with you too.
Jo x
