Whitchurch Down after Widgery By Steve Manning [2020]
limited_edition
lino print
Edition number 11
Image size: H:30 cm x W:42 cm
Complete Size of Unframed Work: H:38 cm x W:52 cm x D:-cm
Sold Unframed
Please note that insitu images are purely an indication of how a piece may look
Steve Manning
'Whitchurch Down after Widgery'
Limited edition lino print on Somerset Satin 250gsm paper
Edition: 11
Image size: H 30cm x W 42cm
Paper size: H 38cm x W 56cm
Unframed
This print was inspired by 'Whitchurch Down' a Dartmoor watercolour by the 19th century Devon artist Francis Widgery. I have added the windswept tree and birds. In the distance Brentor looms above the moor.
This is a reduction print which means the lino block is gradually destroyed with each stage of the print process. Once the edition is complete no further impressions can be made from the block.
I am an Exeter based printmaker with a particularly interest in skies and clouds which provide the focus of my images, the cloudscape often informing the overall composition of the completed print. For me the challenge is to render distant vistas and ethereal skies using a medium usually associated with bold blocks of colour. I achieve this by either lightening colours with white or thinning them with extender. The end result is prints which could be described as having a ‘painterly’ quality.
Steve Manning, artist with Wychwood Art. Steve Manning is an Exeter based print maker who learnt his print making skills at the Double Elephant Print Workshop. He works out of an attic studio commanding fine views of clouds and sky. Steve works predominantly with lino, employing a combination of multi-block and reduction printing to produce spacious landscapes inspired by Devon moorland and estuaries. Reduction printing is a challenging discipline because, as the process
progresses, the lino block is gradually destroyed as subsequent layers are cut away. This leaves little room for error and ensures no further prints can be made once the edition is complete.
‘I am particularly interested in skies and clouds and these provide the focus of my images, the cloudscape often informing the overall composition of the completed print. For me the challenge is to render distant vistas and ethereal skies using a medium usually associated with bold blocks of colour. I achieve this by either lightening colours with white or thinning them with extender. The end result is prints which could be described as having a ‘painterly’ quality.
Relief printmaking is not a spontaneous discipline. The creation of my prints is a painstaking, frustrating, frequently complicated and an occasionally unsuccessful exercise using a medium not entirely suited to rendering the ephemeral nature of my chosen subject matter! I should be a watercolourist but I love the combination of craft and fine art printmaking offers.’
Steve’s prints are produced in small, limited editions and have been exhibited in many places including the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol. He is a member of the South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts.
To discuss any of Steve Manning's works for sale please call 07799535765 or email deborah@wychwoodart.com
