Sea Studies
A way to connect with, and to better understand our new home by the sea, Sea Studies are a series of small print studies of some of my favourite treasures from the coast. Mainly collected from the shores of our island (but I would never turn down a beautiful shell, pebble or piece of seaweed from elsewhere).
Sea Studies has helped me to settle into my new landscape (seascape) and to create a source book of forms, textures and tones, using single blocks to improve my mark making and increase my familiarity with natural coastal finds.
Each print has been hand pulled using oil based ink on Japanese Hosho paper.
A brief study period I set for myself not long after we’d moved to Orkney was to familiarise myself with the new wildlife I found on my doorstep. So one day I went out on a walk and I found this spectacular whelk with holdfast attached. I brought it home and drew it quickly before the holdfast had a chance to dry out, and this print is the result.
A mermaid’s purse is the discarded shell casing for a flapper skate egg. Once the egg has hatched, the case floats away, often washing up on nearby beaches. We find these cases often on our island though they are an endangered species in British waters these days so it’s a privilege to know there are still colonies close by. This was a quick sketch and study to familiarise myself with the shape and form of a mermaid’s purse. I have a collection of them in my studio now.
I am fascinated by the variety of seaweed we have growing on our northern shores, and took inspiration from the most common variety I can pick up at the bottom of my garden to make this mini print.
Linocut sketch of a piece of serrated wrack seaweed, first produced as part of John Pedder’s 1/Many charity initiative.