This is a linocut of my cat, it is entitled “Alvin”
This is a lovingly created original piece of art to gift or keep for yourself. A handprinted linocut of a blackbird singing in the hedgerow ( each one is uniquely hand printed and inked and so the sage/olive green colours will vary slightly print to print making each unique). The Lino print (12" X 8") is printed on A3 printmaking paper and comes on a backing board in a cellophane pocket, ready for you to hand or frame as you wish. This is a limited edition of 25 in this colour. Numbered, signed and titled in pencil.
Green and white snowdrop, original lino print. The print is handprinted on white Zerkall paper The print will fit a frame 8 x 6 inches. As this is handprinted each print will have printing variations, this is what makes it unique. The print is an open edition and further prints would be available on request , please don't hesitate to contact me. This will be sent to you free of change by Royal Mail in protective packaging. Read more
David John Payne (1880 -1959)
Hand-cut woodblock print cards, individually hand-printed on heavyweight cold-press watercolor cards 140lb/300gsm paper. Envelopes are 70 lb. / 104 gsm. Please note that these are hand-printed. Each card, even printed from the same woodcut, is unique. The cards you receive will vary slightly from those shown. View videos of carving and printing projects from Penny Bun Press here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWLDTwF6TdPdDyrcmq62scNMHvlGoSviK
A handcut linoprint based on my own drawing, then hand printed onto Japanese kozo using water based ink. Each print is signed with my hanko- a stamp that is used in place of a signature in Japan. The print is 25cm (10 inches) by 20cm (8 inches) to fit in a standard frame. The frame is not included. Each print comes in a cellophane sleeve with extra card to protect it. Your order will be sent in a card-backed envelop labelled "DO NOT BEND". Read more
painted cherry woodcut block Lisa Brawn 2010
I think I am officially addicted to lino printing ! As surfaces to carve can become quite costly and as I am thinking of working on bigger scale prints., I have been looking for alternative materials to use for carving and printing. You might also be interested in : Getting started with Linocut printing How to hand print linocuts I did a bit of research and found artists that were successfully carving on marmoleum (a flooring linoleum), plywood, MDF and pan shower lining. I did not try Marmoleum and plywood yet but tried MDF. Plywood This artist Søren Bjælde makes wonderful prints from plywood with many plates and colors, you can watch videos on his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCObvZ8ukdlii4k-62Ju7Zxg MDF MDF is a very pleasant surface to carve but I wasn’t happy with the precision of lines I could get, even after brushing a few layers of shellac. I also tried coating the MDF with GAC 100 but found that it was becoming a bit too hard and slippery to carve. Lines were not precise enough for what I want to do when printing with MDF Pan Shower liner I also tried pan shower liner mounted on board, and so far this is my favourite alternative to linoleum or vinyl plates. Pan shower liner is made of PVC, so a material quite similar to the vinyl plates you can buy in art supplies store. You can find shower pan liner at home hardware stores. Pan shower liner is easy to cut with scissors. The liner is only 4 mm thick so not thick enough to use by itself, so you have to mount it on board. I mounted it the same way I am mounting watercolor paper on board. You might also be interested in : Mounting watercolor paper on board This is the pan shower liner once mounted on board. Once mounted on a hard surface like MDF, the pan shower liner is very easy to cut and makes very clean lines. Pan shower liner is very easy to carve. My only disappointment, with pan shower liner is that the plastic smell is pretty strong, to the point of being too much if you leave the whole liner out in your studio. It is manageable if you work on a small surface. While carving you will probably expose some of the MDF underneath, I recommend you apply a layer of GAC 100 before printing to seal the wood. Here is a video of me hand printing a large 24 x 24 inches tree cookie from a carving that was done on pan shower liner mounted on MDF. I used Arches watercolor paper and Caligo safe wash ink for this print. Have you tried alternative materials to linoleum or vinyl ? Do you want to share your results? (You can post pictures in the comments)
I thought I'd feature another one of my christmas books - this time a fabulous Angie Lewin book called Plants & Places I received as a gif...
HIGH-QUALITY ART Our premium prints brighten any wall. They are ideal for your home, bar, kitchen, restaurant, dorm, office and, well, you name it. They look fantastic everywhere. A PERFECT GIFT Art is the perfect gift for the people you love. Gift our high-quality prints for birthdays, weddings, house warming, Christmas, anniversaries, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day and to say Thank You. EASY TO FRAME Our prints are sized for easy framing. The sizes make it easy to find a frame here on Etsy or at any craft or department store. FRAMED PRINTS & CANVASES We do sell famed prints and and canvases. If you would like your artwork to arrive framed or in a different style, please get in touch.. MUSEUM-GRADE PAPER Our papers are sourced from the world's finest paper mills. We pair the image to the paper most suited to it, typically using: Canson Infinity Platine Fibre Rag (310gsm with a satin finish); Hahnemühle Photorag paper (308g with a super matt finish); Hahnemühle Photo Luster 260gsm; and Somerset Enhanced Velvet 330gsm. We also have a range of three papers from Hahnemühle's Natural Line range - agave, bamboo and hemp. Please get in touch if you would like to confirm a paper choice. GENUINE ARCHIVAL INKS Our Giclée prints are made from higher quality, fade-resistant, archival, pigment-based inks. When applied to high-quality archival substrates, like, for example, the Hahnemühle cotton-based, acid free Rag papers we use, this results in an unbeatable archival lifespan of up to 200 years. WE TAKE CARE OF YOUR PRINTS We pack our prints with the utmost care. We love art. We want it to reach you in perfect condition. For prints over 420mm wide, we carefully cover your prints with tissue paper and bubble wrap, eliminating the danger of any scratches or folds. Your prints are placed into a robust cardboard tube, secured and sealed at both ends. For prints below 420mm wide, we package your print in a robust envelope. Your print is placed in group sleeves on card stiffener, fixed to the card with stickers and placed in the secure envelope. SHIPPING We carefully package multiple prints together, saving you any extra costs. Shipping rates for prints typically start at: UK and Germany £7; EU and EEA €12; USA $18; RoW £20. We work hard to keep shipping costs down, but couriers have raised their rates sharply over the past year. SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING The materials we use have been carefully selected to reduce any impact on the environment while still ensuring your orders get to you in perfect condition. All packaging is a mix of being sustainably sourced, recyclable and biodegradable.
Hello there! Been a while since my last post, life has been busy and full of change! I've decide to resume posting here & look forward to sharing what's been happening at the shop. To catch up on shop goings-on over the past few months I've been away, I have been posting pretty regularly to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Flickr! Some new prints there to see that I'll catch up with sharing eventually...and more to come! Give a follow on any of those platforms & stay up to date with Tugboat's day-to-day. The "BOWING FLOWER" (above) is brand new to the T.B.P.S. shop in the past week or two; a quick release and a faster style of making that I'm eager to embrace! The finished print is 10" x 9", inked in classic black and printed from the woodblock to natural Kitakata paper. A summer blossom arches into a deep bow; a graceful flow of curving lines. "BOWING FLOWER" is an original woodblock print by Valerie Lueth, 2017. Limited edition is 200--copies are going fast! More information and purchase details on Etsy and in Tugboat's Shop!
When my parents moved into a care-home earlier this year, they asked me to: take the art work from their walls, take the music and books from their bookshelves and sell everything else. I recognised all their paintings and drawings, except for their beloved Noel Counihans. Noel Counihan (1913–86) was born in this city, Melbourne. He eventually studied part-time under Charles Wheeler at Melbourne’s famous National Gallery of Victoria Art School in the early 1930s, where he met social realist artists for the first time. In the middle of the world’s worst depression, what a joy that must have been. Social realism, the belief that art should reflect the realities of society under capitalism, could not have suited young Counihan better. While still in his teens, Counihan joined the Communist Party, helped found the Workers Art Guild, created artistic banners and began printmaking, producing linocuts and lithographs for the party’s magazines and pamphlets. He wanted to be known as a pencil portraitist and press cartoonist. I presume it was because these were the very media that enabled him to create art that had a social purpose and could be used to expose social inequalities. Pastels, water colours and even oils might have been too soft and not gritty enough to depict people living in the slums. During the Great Depression Counihan participated in the Free Speech fights in Brunswick, organised by the Communist Party in response to a Victorian state government law banning subversive gatherings. Dozens of members of the Unemployed Workers Movement were arrested, and unemployed meetings in Sydney Road Brunswick were broken up by the police. Counihan, artist and brawler on behalf of the starving unemployed, became the stuff of legends. In the 1930s Counihan worked as a cartoonist for famous and not so famous publications, including The Bulletin and the Communist Party's paper, the Guardian. Here peace begins. 1950 linocut with ink, 21 x 30 cm National Gallery of Australia Even during the terrible war years, it was another social realist artist, Yosl Bergner, who encouraged and cajoled Counihan to continue. And to paint, rather than draw! A founder and member of the Contemporary Art Society in 1938, Counihan initiated its very successful anti-Fascist exhibition that was held in Melbourne right in the middle of the war, 1942. His work The New Order, one of the few paintings that he preserved from the show, was influenced by one of the American social realist artist William Gropper. And also influenced by the drab colours, sagging figures and ill fitted clothing as painted by Yosl Bergner. The Anti-Fascist Art Exhibition had works from artists who all saw their work as having an important social and political role in documenting the suffering of the oppressed. Some young artists participated in the exhibition after they became friends with Noel Counihan and other social realist painters and writers. They clearly shared Bergner’s social conscience. In The New Order 1942, Counihan wanted to be as direct as he could be with his anti-fascist politics. Both The New Order and Miners working in Wet Conditions (National Gallery of Australia, Canberra) were shown in the Australia at War show, held at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1945. Miners won first prize in this major exhibition. Canberra's National Gallery described the New Order thus: He believed that art should have a social mission and that it could be used as a tool to expose political corruption, the hypocrisy of the church and the inequalities in society. The faceless Nazi soldiers are shown from behind, as anonymous symbols of oppression. They are symbols for all military oppressors. The victims, an elderly bearded peasant who has been shot and a decapitated woman, are symbolic of the civilian human sacrifice throughout the ages. Counihan’s comment has a timeless and universal significance Later Counihan helped organise an Artists' Unity Congress, receiving awards for his paintings of miners in the Australia at War exhibition in 1945. In 1946 he, Bergner and Victor O’Connor exhibited at the Myer Art Gallery. They were the three realist artists who were restating their social realist position and their unhappiness with their friends in the Contemporary Art Society. Towards the end of the 1940s the artist travelled to the United Kingdom and across Europe. Counihan continued working in the 1950s and 1960s, but radicalism largely ended in this country with the Vietnam War. Or perhaps Counihan was simply becoming a bit older and a bit better behaved. The new order 1942 oil, 62 x 80 cm National Gallery of Australia ** The Counihan Gallery in Melbourne aims to promote and inspire innovation and diversity in the visual arts through its annual program of exhibitions. It also endeavours to encourage discussion and debate about new ideas and issues in contemporary art and culture. I am delighted the Gallery was named in honour of my Australian artist and activist Noel Counihan, but it didn't open until 1999. Since Counihan's most important contributions to art were in the 1930s and 1940s, this seems a very long wait. Coincidentally the blog Black Mark has discussed special exhibitions at the Counihan Gallery just recently. I recommend his posts.