Today would’ve been Wendy Hiller’s 120th birthday, star of Separate Tables, The Elephant Man and the wonderful Powell and Pressburger film ‘I Know Where I’m Going’ (1946) which inspired this print.
This was a lockdown print and I’m very fond of it not least because the green and pink inks combined perfectly. Only slightly marred by inadvertently inspiring the Spurs away kit last season… 🤷🏼
#wendyhiller #rogerlivesey #powellandpressburger #iknowwhereimgoing #linogravure #linocut #printmaking #reductionprint #blockprint #reliefprint #linogravure #printspotters
Process reel for my Winter Almanac print as featured in the latest edition of @margatemercury
Printed at @helloprintstudio in Margate using Caligo inks and Canaletto paper.
#printmaking #linocutprint #linoprint #linocut #printstagram #printstudio #reliefprint #blockprint #linogravure #printprocess @ukprintmakers #printisnotdead #caligoink #pfeiltools #inkblending
A reworked linocut print inspired by the Lungfish song ‘Hear the Children Sing’ from my #folkhorroralphabet series. @wignifier , Nathan Salsburg and Tyler Trotter covered it last year (I think) and stretched it out into a bewitched devilish mantra.
#folklore #folksongs #folkhorror #hearthechildrensing
Sorting out some records for my ‘Wyrd Folk’ set at the Folk Lore Kent Mayhem Fair in Canterbury on Sunday 24th May curated by @folklorekent
Thrilled to be playing records alongside sets by @goblin.band and @greendieselfolk along with lots of folk themed workshops and Morris dancing including Margate team @bowerstreetmorris
Also taking your wyrd folk requests… GO!
#folkmusic #folk #wyrdfolk
This is a @hughribbans linocut print. Hugh is one of the my favourite artists and printmakers. He generously donated @palmbayarts some prints for the Palm Bay art auction along with many other artists. Thanks to the incredible work of @melanietongpaintings and with some help from the likes of @harrybakerpoet and @thewalpolebayhotel around £4600 was raised at the auction. The money raised goes straight back into the funding of the creative arts within the school; bringing in visual artists to the school studios, hosting artists in residence, live theatre, poetry workshops, gallery and museum project partnerships and high quality art materials for the studio. Thanks to everyone that donated artwork, attended the event and bid on the beautiful art. And a gigantic shout out to Mel for all her hard work. Every school needs a Mel Tong. 🏆
#printmaking #palmbayart #palmbayartauction
A reworked linocut print inspired by the documentary Arcadia (2017) by Paul Wright, an unnerving through Britain’s seasons and customs by way of the BFI National Archive. The soundtrack fuses foreboding synths, electronica and choral elements with traditional folk songs by Anne Briggs.
#arcadia #folklore #folksongs #folkhorror #folkhorroralphabet
Process video for the witch hare linocut illustration I posted last week.
‘I shall go into, go into a hare
With sorrow sigh and with mickle care
I shall go into, go into a hare
With sorrow sigh and with mickle care
Chorus (after each verse):
I go to the Devil in the Devil’s name
And stay till I come home again
I go to the Devil in the Devil’s name
And stay till I come home again.’
#lino #linocut #folksongs #hare #folksongfebruary
Another reworked linocut print with a folk song theme. I sat on this one for a bit but a magpie has been foraging in my garden all morning and it felt like the appropriate nudge I needed.
‘One for sorrow, two for joy,
Three for a girl and four for a boy.
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret never told.
Devil, devil, I defy thee.
Devil, devil, I defy thee.
Devil, devil, I defy thee.
Oh, the magpie brings us tidings
Of news both fair and foul;
She’s more cunning than the raven,
More wise than any owl.
For she brings us news of the harvest
Of the barley, wheat, and corn.
And she knows when we’ll go to our graves
And how we shall be born.
She brings us joy when from the right,
Grief when from the left.
Of all the news that’s in the air
We know to trust her best.
For she sees us at our labour,
And she mocks us at our work.
And she steals the egg from out of the nest,
And she can mob the hawk.
The priest, he says we’re wicked
To worship the devil’s bird.
Ah, but we respect the old ways
And we disregard his word.
For we know they rest uneasy
As we slumber in the night;
And we’ll always leave a little bit of meat
For the bird that’s black and white.’
#folksongfebruary #folksongs #magpie #linocut #lino
Been to Cornwall and Devon for a few days. Spent more time on the A303 and the M25 than I did on the moors. Standard.
1. Pen and watercolour sketch of Trethevy Quoit in Cornwall.
2. Off to Cornwall to hunt piskies with Reader’s Digest ‘Folklore Myths and Legends of Britain’.
3. The Hurlers Stone Circles near Minions on Bodmin Moor were Neolithic or Bronze Age ceremonial stones. The stones are said to be petrified men punished for hurling on a Sunday. Two stone pipers are stood nearby. Legends say it’s impossible to count the stones which could well be true given there were meant to be three rings and I only counted two.
4 and 5. A gentle stroll away is the Cheesewring, a foreboding geological rock formation; “If a man dreams of a great pile of stones in a nightmare, he would dream of such a pile as the Cheesewring.” (Wilkie Collins, 1861)
The Reader’s Digest Book focuses on local stonecutter Daniel Gumb who lived with his wife in a cave beneath the rocks in the 1700s but another folkloric origin story has a giant Uther going up against a frail holy man Saint Tue in a classic rock throwing contest. Disappointingly Saint Tue cheats by casting a rock carrying angel spell (prayer) and all the giants find religion. Boo.
6. Horse. Possibly called Ian. Wasn’t giving much away.
7. Bodmin Moor giving off exquisite television adaptation of a M R James story vibes.
8. Gorse framing a spooky derelict farmhouse.
9. King Doniert’s Stone, the remains of an ornately decorated 9th Century Celtic cross commemorating Dungarth, King of Cornwall, who died around 875. The inscription carved into the stone translates as ‘Doniert has begged prayers for his soul; live, laugh, love’.
10 and 11. And Trethevy Quoit a megalithic burial structure of five standing stones with a large slab roof thought to be a Neolithic religious structure or more likely community grave. Known locally as the ‘Giant’s House’ (although I’m 6’4” and would find it a little pokey) legend has it the rocks… (continued in comments)
#folklore #trevethyquoit #standingstones #hurlersstonecircles #wyrdfolk
