#I really want lino carving tools so I can do printmaking at home also

[beakerhoneydew]

Literally earlier I was like wait I’m like fully stocked on art supplies I can make whatever art I want. And then I drew mushrooms for like 45 minutes it ruled.

[idratherbefishingg]

Linoleum Printing Essay

Before the use of linoleum as a printing method, the oldest form of relief print is woodcut. Woodcut printing was used to produce images, text or patterns and was used widely throughout East Asia. It originated in China as a method of printing on textiles, but the method grew and was expanded to include printing on materials such as paper too. Ukiyo-e is the most well-known Japanese woodblock print and was made very famous by the artist Hokusai with his woodblock print The Great Wave Off Kanagawa. While this was a popular and effective printing method, its popularity decreased over the later years due to its price compared to the inexpensive linoleum. (Wikipedia Contributors, 2019)

Linoleum came about around the 1800s, starting off as a new type of flooring. This material was made from linseed oil and would then be heated and pressed into a mesh to hold it all together (Curious Seagull, 2017). It was invented by a man named Frederick Walton, who first patented the material in 1860 (Boarding All Rows, n.d.). Although lino was originally designed for flooring, even before it appeared in the artists view, it was also used to create patterns for wallpaper. Now during this time period, the most common forms of relief printing were wood and metal, which were used all over the world.

The transition from linoleum flooring to lino printmaking isn’t very clear due to a lack of research and documentation, although there are chunks of information here and there which can be used in order to attempt to piece it together. It is said that from the 1900s, linoleum had started to be used for wallpaper patterns in Germany and from there had gained traction, going on to be widely popular within the German expressionist and Russian constructivist movements. From then on, people recognised lino as a cheaper alternative for relief printmaking and much easier to carve due to its consistent texture compared to grainy and imperfect wood. It was brought into schools as a cheaper method to demonstrate carving and easier for the students to use and buy. (Curious Seagull, 2017)

The materials necessary for linoleum printing include; linoleum, a carving blade, a marker, a sketch, water-based relief ink, a roller and some tracing paper. To begin the process, you would create a sketch or choose an image that you would like to create a print from. Depending on preference, you would either draw straight onto the lino or could trace a drawing and transfer it onto the lino instead, the latter allowing for a clearer vision of a finished product. From there you would use a marker to indicate either the areas which you want to cut out or the areas you want to keep. Then taking the carving blade of the desired size, cutting and removing the areas which are to remain un-inked. Once completed, take the roller and roll out some ink, ensuring it is not too thick, and roll onto the linocut until fully covered in ink. The paper is placed on top of the inked lino and the roller is used to create pressure, which allows the ink to be transferred to the paper, then once satisfied the lino is peeled off to reveal the print.

The three lino print artists whose artwork I will look into are; Ethel Spowers, Valenti Angelo, and Tom Hazelmyer. Starting with Ethel Spowers and her piece Wet Afternoon. Ethel was born in Melbourne on 11thJuly 1890 into a fairly wealthy and cultured family. The wealth of her family allowed Spowers to be able to train as an artist in both Melbourne and Paris, notably with André Lhote (a famous French artist). Spowers was first known for illustrating fairy tales, however her style had changed in 1928/29 when she studied linoleum printing with Claude Flight. Her lino prints are renowned for being bold but simplistic and for her interesting use of colour (Wikipedia, 2020). Her piece “Wet Afternoon” gives a sense of peace and calmness through the use of muted colours in a rainy scene. The sense of movement in this piece is prominent through the ongoing lines of rain and the numerous umbrellas in the piece, creating the feeling of a bustling street and people trying to fend off the pouring rain. It feels like a very real piece of work, as if you could easily place yourself in the print, amongst the many umbrellas. The people in the print are anonymous – you cannot tell their age or their gender or even if they have hair, but dispite the unfamiliarity of these people, they still feel very much alive and are an important part of the feeling of this piece. I rather like the composition of Wet Afternoon because of Spowers use of colour and positioning. The starch white of the umbrellas in the background help to focus the viewers eyes on the foreground instead, seeing more of the colour and detail before then roaming your eyes back. The way that the rain falls almost makes it so you must look diagonally at this piece, creating a unity in the piece as the rainfall covers the whole print. Overall, the emotions this piece creates are very calming to me and that is why I chose this print from Ethel Spowers.

The second artist I’m looking at is Valenti Angelo, he was an Italian-born U.S. illustrative artist, illustrating about 250 books. For printmaking, his favourite medium was linoleum. I’m going to analyse his print Cat (Nydam, 2014). This piece represents a very dark side to lino, not in a sinister way but an actual darkness. Angelo’s use of the carving tool to create the small delicate lines allows for a soft appearance despite the high contrast, giving an overall soft feeling. The deep black used all over the piece makes way for very defined and distinct shapes and form, creating a gentle night-time scene. Despite the fine, intricate lines this piece still contains a very strong and hard-hitting image. The repetitive, small carvings of the cat’s body help to create a round motion, giving the cat more of a realistic feeling, almost as if the cat could jump out of the print. The contrast between white and black and the delicate versus the strong shapes creates a vivid scene that anyone could envision themselves in, creating almost a homely vibe to this piece. I feel like Angelo tried to create a very comforting yet almost daunting piece, the cat’s stare being very intense but the flowing of the curtains and the lines on the table being calm. Overall, I think Angelo’s use of negative space, specifically in the shadows on tables, and the subtle carved lines really bring together the intensity of this piece, despite how gentle the carving seems to be.

The last artist I want to analyse is Tom Hazelmyer and his piece Gay Witch Abortion Bash. Tom is best known as a musician and founder and owner of the independent label Amphetamine Reptile Records. He is also the lead singer and songwriter for the band Halo of Flies. Despite being big in the music industry, he’s also very deep into printmaking. He started his interest into printmaking because of his daughter, she had a project to do with lino printing and he decided to help. It was from there that he developed a love for it. His piece Gay Witch Abortion Bash is an album cover he designed, it’s a very striking piece because of the bold lines and colours used (White, R. 2015). The texture of the print creates a roughness that goes hand in hand with the provocative subject matter of this piece, helping to bring together the whole feel of it. The piece frames itself using the writing above and below, the writing uses up negative space smartly to draw the viewers eyes around the piece and create a border without it being an obvious choice. The contrast between the white outline of the rat and the smaller brown and red lines creates an almost 3-Dimensional quality to the piece. The lack of difference of tone throughout most of the piece allows the white outlines to act as a focal point, making sure your eyes are drawn specifically to the rat’s face. As red is the most striking use of colour in the piece, it almost screams at you to look at it, similarly the music this album cover was created for is classified as noise rock, creating a link between the album cover and the music. The gritty look of the print relates closely to how people perceive wild rats, as things such as dirty pests, disease carries, etc. Overall, the emotions this piece creates within me is a quite a strong excited feeling, the visually impactful focal point of this piece is almost shocking to the viewer, inciting raw emotion.

Bibliography

Curious Seagull. (2017). A Short History of Lino Printing…. [online] Wordpress. [Viewed 14th March 2021] Available at: https://curiousseagull.wordpress.com/2017/06/20/a-short-history-of-lino-printing/

Linocut Artist | Boarding All Rows. (n.d.). Linocut Artists and History. [online] Boardingallrows. [Viewed 14th March 2021] Available at: https://www.boardingallrows.com/history-of-lino-printing-and-famous-linocut-artists.

Nydam, A. (2014), Block Prints by Angelo. Black and White – Words and Pictures. [online]. (4/2/2014). [Viewed 14th March 2021]. Available at: https://nydamprintsblackandwhite.blogspot.com/2014/02/block-prints-by-angelo.html

White, R. (2015). Interview - HAZE XXL. [online] MPLSART.COM.[Viewed 14th March 2021] Available at: https://www.mplsart.com/written/2015/07/interview-haze-xxl-

Wikipedia Contributors (2019). Woodblock printing. [online] Wikipedia. [Viewed 14th March 2021] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodblock_printing.

Wikipedia. (2020). Ethel Spowers. [online] Wikipedia.[Viewed 14th March 2021] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Spowers.