Swallows Returning

Rob Barnes

Swallows Returning
Limited Edition Linocut Print
Edition of 50
Image Size H 44cm x W 33cm
Sheet Size H 49cm x W 61cm
Sold Unframed mounted in Antique White mountboard
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Please note that in situ images are purely an indication of how a piece may look.

Swallows Returning by Rob Barnes is a limited edition linocut print using a Key Block and a Reduction Block resulting in several layers of printing. This landscape was inspired by walks by the river when Cow Parsley is flowering, and the sun is showing a promise of summer. Rob was trying to achieve a sense of movement as swallows return across our warm skies. He draws inspiration from the East Anglian coast and landscape, much of which appears in his linocut prints. Many of these show Rob’s keen interest in the use of colour blends and graduations.

Rob Barnes studied painting and printmaking at Hull College of Art and London University in the early 1960s. He taught etching, screen-printing, linocut and related surface printmaking at Keswick Hall College in Norfolk. He later moved to the University of East Anglia where he continued teaching in the School of Education until 2006. He is based in South Norfolk.

He has exhibited regularly in London and many of his etchings and linocuts are in private collections, here and abroad. More recently he has returned to linocuts, enjoying the strong physical nature of this medium. His linocuts are inspired mainly by the landscape of East Anglia. Effects of light and colour, weather and atmosphere contribute to the final linocut. Recent work has been inspired by observing the changing fields and wildlife through the seasons. Coastal prints are inspired by Norfolk and Suffolk waterways.

Size: H:49 cm x W:61 cm

Rob Barnes, artist, is available for sale online and in our art gallery at Wychwood Art. Rob Barnes studied painting and printmaking at Hull College of Art and London University in the early 1960s. He taught etching, screen-printing, lino and related surface printmaking at Keswick Hall College in Norfolk. He later moved to the University of East Anglia, Norwich where he continued teaching in the School of Education until 2006. Presently he divides his time between printmaking and his other passion, playing the violin in local orchestras and for choral performances. In 2017 he began making a small number of sterling silver jewellery pieces following a course at West Dean, Sussex. His artwork follows themes, such as light on water, or shadows in the landscape. Linocuts are hand-printed on an Albion press built by Harry Rochat printers’ engineers in the London borough of Barnet. This is a copy of a press by Ulmer and Sons 1854 but much improved in design and function. It may look Victorian, but was cast and finished in 2013 as press number 0007. Rob, stretching the truth, has called it ‘James Bond’. Living half a mile from the river Yare in Norfolk, I look out across the marshes in one direction and across open fields in the other. There are muntjac deer and hares in winter chasing across the fields opposite. As spring approaches, there are times when I could almost sell tickets for the display of hares chasing and competing. There can be as many as ten in the field and they can be surprisingly large. I see them as silhouettes against the light and they never stay still for long. Another passion is drawing old wooden boats, clinker-built and seen on the Suffolk coast at Southwold and Aldeburgh. To discuss any of Rob Barnes' works for sale please call 07799535765 or email deborah@wychwoodart.com