Michael Gage

Linocuts, hand coloured.

This print is of the Round House in Lewes.





Three plate linocut, 10 x 10 cm.
The Round House was the base of a windmill built in 1801, and then turned into a house somewhere around 1900. In 1919, Virginia Woolf bought it, but never lived there, preferring to move to Monk's House at Rodmell instead.

And another print of Lewes. Like the previous one, it's a view from Cliffe Bridge; this time looking in the other direction, south, past the old warehouses, towards the Linklater Pavilion.




Three plate linocut, 10 x 10cm. Edition of 5.

Struggling a bit here with the multiple plate technique, which I've not done much of before. Working on such a small scale makes any errors much more visible. You can see the black layer overlaps at the left edge -- if this was a 50cm square, that would be hardly noticeable, but on a 10cm square it stands out. Need to cut the blocks much more accurately, and sort out the registration method.

Another "buildings of Lewes" print: the rooftops and chimneys of Harvey's Brewery from Cliffe Bridge.




Three plate linocut, 10 x 10 cm. Edition of 5.

It's been quite here recently. I've been busy working on a set of prints of Lewes, trying out a new style and technique. I've been concentrating using multiple plates (instead of reduction prints), and, inspired by my wood engraving course, on black-and-white images -- yet trying to include some colour as well, just to brighten them up.

Here's the first print in the set, of one my favourite buildings in Lewes, on the corner of Rotten Row.



Rotten Row, Lewes. Linocut. 10 x 10 cm. Edition of 5. 

And another exhibition: The Croydon Art Society exhibition at Denbies Vineyard in Surrey starts on Monday 3 September, and is open every day until 4pm on Sunday 16 September.

I'll be exhibiting in this year's Lewes Artwave Festival at 19 Mill Road, Lewes.


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August: Sat 25th, Sun 26th, Mon 27th
September: Sat 1st, Sun 2nd, Sat 8th, Sun 9th
12.00-17.00

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I spent last weekend at bip-art Printmaking Workshop in Brighton on a wood engraving course with Chris Daunt, and produced this print of the walled garden at Wakehurst:



It's carved -- more like, scratched -- into a block of lemonwood, and then printed in black ink by hand-burnishing. The challenge was expressing everything in black or white -- no greys, let alone colour -- everything is there or not there; every mark is a decision that can't be changed.

A dark layer on the boats and trees, and the print is finished at last.



9 stage reduction linocut, 30 x 24cm.

This is the view from Waterloo Bridge, looking east along the Embankment to the City of London.

The green on the previous layer worked so well, I decided to do some more.



That's the trees finished now. Next stage: complete the boats, and we're done.