Stormborn
Linocut
Edition of 50
Oil based ink on Japanese Hosho paper
Inspired by a few chance encounters with grey seal mothers and pups along the shoreline of our island, as well as the beautiful linework of Clifford Webb, Stormborn depicts the resilience of wildlife amongst the turbulent waters of wintertime seas. Grey seal mothers typically pup between November and January, and stay with their pups for the first few weeks, feeding them up before going back to sea themselves. The pup must wait until its coat of white fur has shed before it can take to the waves as well, so it needs to lay down as much fat as possible whilst its mother is there to feed it.
Inspired by the linocuts of Clifford Webb, Stormborn came about following a chance encounter with a grey seal pup one chilly December day. Grey seals pup here in the winter. The mother seal hauls herself out of the water onto the rocks and finds a sheltered spot to give birth, then returns to the water to hunt, coming back often to feed her pup, who is covered in a coat of white fluffy non-waterproof fur for warmth. The mother must get as much fat on her pup as possible in a very short space of time in order to give it the best chance of survival. After a couple of weeks she goes back to the sea for the final time and the pup must be strong enough to survive until it has shed its fur coat so it can also go to sea at last. Stormborn is a record of those first, busy days of a seal pup’s life: feeding as much as possible to lay down the fat reserves it needs to make it to the water once its fur has been shed.