No cutting today, just a trip to the laundrette, tidying up, hoovering, cooking and ironing. This image was part of a series of domestic images I cut for a book called Washday Whites.

I was watching Wonderland on television and it reminded me of this print. I didn’t learn to swim until I was an adult and then I used to go for a swim everyday at the Imperial Hotel in Torquay. The ‘Imperial Ladies’ are the dedicated swimmers that I used to see in the pool there. They were always very absorbed in their own world and I think this print captures that. I like the half-moon faces and the intensity of the blue.

image size (w x h) – 150mm x 210mm
technique – two colour reduction linocut
edition size – 8
paper – Somerset

This was my first experiment with colour and reduction block printing. I cut the white lines first and printed the block in green ink, then I cut out the areas I wanted to remain green and printed the block in black.

The white lines are crisp which shows that the registration is good.  As the edition progressed, the green became more intense.

image size (w x h) – 300mm x 210mm
technique –  two colour reduction linocut
edition size – 6
paper – Somerset

This was one of the first blocks where I cut out the black line, rather than cutting the subject in white line. The design started from the three partings at the top. The symmetry of the picture is very satisfying.

This image was used by the West Cork women’s project in their newsletter, ‘The West Cork Whisper’. They are a support and information service for women living or having left a situation of domestic violence. They produce a quarterly newsletter which gets distributed to much of the republic of Ireland. It was used to promote a coffee morning to mark their 16 Days of Action opposing violence against women. www.westcorkwomensproject.ie.

image size (w x h) – 300mm x 210mm
technique –  linocut
edition size – 35