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| Pont Sarn, Bettws Dingle Robin WIlson (2011) |
Pont Sarn or The Bridge over the Old Way, Bettws Dingle is the first illustration from the series intended to accompany the forthcoming Kilvert book, which I've already reported on in earlier posts. This image is another example of a reduction linoblock (A4 size), the product of four re-carvings of the same block from which four different colours of progressively darker toned and differently coloured printing inks are applied and transferred to the paper. The colours are mixed from primaries on a glass palette much as an oil painter mixes colours and then applied to the printing block using a special hand-roller. After cleaning the block to ensure that the ink is only where it should be, the paper is placed on the inked block and pressure applied to the reverse side (in this case I used a normal old EPNS spoon to burnish the paper to create the dense and opaque colours I wanted).
The image is from a sketch made from the stream bed in Bettws Dingle on our recent fieldwork in Clyro which is situated close to Hay-on-Wye. This and several other Clyro pictures which have resulted from our walk will feature in our forthcoming exhibition in the Strawbale Gallery, Duns Tew for Oxford Arts Week.
