Axe Valley Sky By Steve Manning [2019]
limited_edition
lino print
Edition number 10
Image size: H:30 cm x W:42 cm
Sold Unframed
Please note that insitu images are purely an indication of how a piece may look
Steve Manning
'Axe Valley Sky'
Limited edition linocut print on Somerset Satin 250gsm paper
Edition: 10
Image size: H 30cm x W 42cm
Paper size: H 38cm x W 56cm
Unframed
Please note that in situ image is purely an indication of how a piece may look.
This print was inspired by the dramatic skies that form over the Axe Valley in East Devon, one of my favourite places to walk in the autumn and winter when the valley is busy with overwintering birds. The valley is a place of open spaces where grazing meadows gradually give way to saltmarsh as the river Axe approaches the sea.
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
