Julian Brasington

Square format monochrome print in black ink of a cormorant, one wing outspread and one folded, and sat atop the crown of a tree. Within the tree and hidden by leaves is text which reads: thence up he flew and on the Tree of Life, the middle tree and highest there that grew, sat like a cormorant.

Milton’s Devil — 12.5 x 14.5 cm linocut on Somerset Satin paper which incorporates 3 lines from book IV of John Milton’s epic poem ‘Paradise Lost’. Edition of 10 prints. www.julianbrasington.co.uk/prints/p/mil...

#linocut #JohnMilton #illustration

The crest of a dune rises upwards, flanked by stands of Marram grass depicted in broad tones with strong black lines to describe the grass.

Willow charcoal and Pierre Noire drawing of dunes at Ynys Llanddwyn, North Wales. I find that working in charcoal provides an at times much needed rest from close work in lino and wood.

#Drawing #Charcoal #Dunes

It’s a beautiful piece. Rives is a lovely paper

More photos of colour wood engraving ‘March’. I printed it on 2 types of paper: smooth white Liber Charta and ‘warm white’ BFK Rives (2nd photo) - it has a wonderful texture.

A charcoal drawing across two pages in a landscape format sketchbook of a small church on a tiny islet.

View towards Eglwys Cwyfan atop an islet. In the foreground, part of a drawing of the same view.

Drawing of Eglwys Cwyfan, nr Aberffraw on Ynys Môn. Willow charcoal and Conté fusain charcoal pencil in Stillman & Birn 270 gsm sketchbook. A cold easterly wind blowing, but warm in the sun.

#drawing #charcoal #welshchurches #eglwyscwyfan

Monochrome linocut in black ink on white paper of an elderly woman from the hips up and wearing a polka-dot blouse.

Monochrome linocut in black ink on white paper of an elderly man from the waist up, his arms folded across himself.

Y hen gwpl / the old couple, two linocuts each 6 x 9 cm hand-pressed to sheets of 12 x 16 cm Somerset Satin paper. ‘Y Wraig’ (the wife) and ‘Y Gŵr’ (the husband) based on a photo of my grandparents.

www.julianbrasington.co.uk/prints

#linocut #printmaking

I remember this one well — it’s a lovely print with all its texture and play of light and dark

Thanks, Shayne. Glad you feel that

A charcoal drawing across two pages of a sketchbook in slim landscape format. A church with a short nave and small belfry sits in a dip on the ridge of a sloping field. It is surrounded by trees, which leafless at this time of year, loom over it in a sweep.

Charcoal and Pierre Noire sketchbook drawing of Eglwys Sant Cynhaearn, North Wales. The church is striking on account of the trees that surround it, but I was particularly interested in the fold in the field into which it fits. It was that line that I drew first.

#drawing #charcoal

Detail of print of the face of a girl showing the eyes, nose, and lips. The print has a textured appearance, with lines created from the pressure of pencils visible in shaded areas.

Monotype print in portrait format of a young woman in side profile from the chest up with her head turned to the viewer and making eye contact.

Monotype print on Somerset Satin from a drawing of Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Study of the head of a girl’. Pressed by rolling ink on glass, laying paper on top and then using soft and hard pencils to press the ink to paper. #printmaking

A square format linocut block with a pencil to the side for scale. The pencil is slightly larger in length than the side of the square. The block is intricately carved, with the composition formed from an unbroken line. It depicts a central tree which is connected by roots to a sapling and two flanking trees. Text runs crosswise at the foot of the tree and reads ‘all things were one thing’. A sun forms part of the same line as do birds which sit in the trees.

A monochrome linocut in black ink on white paper and in square format. The composition is formed from an unbroken line. It depicts a centrally placed tree which is connected by roots to a sapling and two flanking trees. Text runs crosswise at the foot of the tree and reads ‘all things were one thing’. A sun forms part of the same line as do birds which sit in the trees.

A linocut in emboss on soft white paper and in square format. The composition is formed from an unbroken line. It depicts a centrally placed tree which is connected by roots to a sapling and two flanking trees. Text runs crosswise at the foot of the tree and reads ‘all things were one thing’. A sun forms part of the same line as do birds which sit in the trees. The emboss picks up all of the marks that have been made by the gouge during the process of clearing areas of Lino away from the single line.

A monochrome linocut in white ink on black paper and in square format. The composition is formed from an unbroken line. It depicts a centrally placed tree which is connected by roots to a sapling and two flanking trees. Text runs crosswise at the foot of the tree and reads ‘all things were one thing’. A sun forms part of the same line as do birds which sit in the trees.

A deceptively simple linocut, but one which took about a week to carve as the tree, sapling, roots, clouds, sun, text, birds are all made from one unbroken line. I’ve editioned the print variously as an emboss, black on white print, and white on black, all on different papers

#printmaking #linocut

A black and white monotype print in portrait format. The print has a grainy texture. The uprights of an old and sea-worn groyne stand against a headland upon the horizon. The white of the incoming tide runs diagonally across the page.

The same view as the other photo, though more heavily inked. The sideline is replaced with dark shadow. The groynes are heavily lined.

Experimenting with a monotype of the view from Aber Ogwen towards Y Gogarth and Llandudno in North Wales. Trying to get a good amount of contrast, but it’s difficult when you can’t see what you’re doing. I’m aiming to do a few more and then choose one to put on the website.

#printmaking #wales

Good luck with it. Lovely to know that you have something beautiful to fall back on if it doesn’t come off.

Looks wonderful. Have you thought about a monochrome version as well?

An original linocut in blue tones showing a little white thatched cottage standing underneath the cliffs on the left, watching out to the sea.

A long time in the making ... this little Coastguard Cottage print was just waiting for the final layers. I finished it in time for its inaugural showing at Linoprint4 at The Horsebridge Art Centre in Whitstable starting this Saturday 1st February. #printmaker #linocut #reductionprint

Many congratulations. Looking forward to getting hold of a copy

Thrilled to feature in issue 29 of Pressing Matters magazine sharing my thoughts on printmaking and the value of traditional media in the age of generative AI.

#Printmaking #AI #magazine #printmaker #handmade #pressingmatters #etching

Good luck with it, Masha

A very enjoyable work in progress-a multiple block linocut, inspired by the local landscape of Edinburgh Southside. The first block is nearly done, another 3 to go.

Love the geese and the interpretation of the escarpment. It’s a very expressive piece throughout

Monochrome linocut in black ink and square format. A blackbird sits atop a small tree, the leaves of which frame the phrase ‘forbidden happy’. The tree is sandwiched between the trunks of two taller trees, from one of which a beach reaches out. Within its leaves is the phrase ‘wrong happy’. The blackbird looks towards the phrase in a manner that suggests it’s shrugging its shoulders.

A linocut that I made a couple of years ago and which I’ve kept a copy of to hang in my studio as I’m particularly fond of the Blackbird.

#printmaking #linocut

A monochrome print in landscape format and black ink of coppiced trees on a ridge. The trees are silhouetted against a grainy sky.

Monotype print made by rolling ink onto glass, laying paper on top and the ‘pressing’ the image using a range of hard and soft pencils. The paper is Zerkall, and the image is 15 x 10 cm.

#printmaking #trees #monochrome

A poem called ‘When one has lived a long time’. It is without punctuation and the obliques that follow indicate line breaks. The poem reads: When one has lived a long time alone / and not alone your time become / someone’s history and you have grown / tired of yet another war and the world / has it in for you simply for being / wrong nation wrong colour wrong / construct in all its fairy-tale fictions / you begin the long slow weaning from lives / someone makes it their business to spoon / 24/7 into your small ever so human head / and dream of an island fish sea-wind / and a life lived companied by no more folk / as can live a long time alone / and not alone on a handful of salty acres

I wrote this poem two years or so back after re-reading Galway Kinnell. It was published last year in Ink Sweat & Tears and remains in my head as the reason why I keep this place for my art and try to keep my timeline the same.

#poetry

Working on a new linocut which is rather full-on with the concentration needed.

#linocut #printmaking

Three square format wood engravings aligned in a row. In the first (reading left to right) a castle tower is screened behind flowing branches. In the second, and urban landscape which takes the same v-shaped profile as that behind the castle tower in the first is screened behind the same lattice of branches and leaves. In the final engraving, the branches are replaced by seaweed, the castle tower returns and before it, in a flooded valley swims a goldfish.

Delighted to have my triptych ‘Tu Hwnt / Beyond’ accepted for exhibition at the Royal Cambrian Academy Open 2025 (11 Jan - 1 March). The triptych is comprised of three 5 x 5 cm wood engravings and is loosely based on a view up Bwlch Llanberis, North Wales.

#woodengraving #printmaking #wales

So much for AI

Linocut in white ink on black paper, square format. A centrally placed tree is linked via its roots to two flanking trees which in turn are linked to each other at the canopies and to the sun. A line of text also runs at ground level from the tree. It reads: all things were one thing.

A square format emboss on a creamy soft white paper. Damp paper is pressed onto the linocut block to create a raised print of a tree flanked by two taller trees.

25x25 cm linocut based on a one-line sketch. Just proofed this on Somerset velvet to see how it comes, having previously made an emboss from the same block. Once I’ve editioned the black version I’ll be doing a final one in black ink on white paper. #linocut #printmaking

Hopefully. Just make a mark. One mark. Usually others follow.

Funny — just the scene I was reading this morning. I have print of the picture as well.

Have recently editioned this print on Somerset Satin paper. Ten prints pressed by hand and using Seville Black letterpress ink — a warm black Cranfield ink with a hint of orange.

#linocut #space #printmaking #nightsky