Get.Printing.Kids.

Do you remember discovering your artist potential as a 7 year old at primary school - getting covered in squidgy poster paint & stamping your hands wherever you saw fit? I remember making hand prints in all different colours, letting them dry then cutting them up & using them as the tail feathers of a peacock.
It made sense at the time.

Having begun my printing career with the colourful peacock, I decided to develop my natural flair even further. For my A level art exam I created an extremely large woodcut of a tree. To do so I used various sharp cutters & hacked away at this bloody massive bit of wood for hours until I ended up woodcutting my finger & spending much of the rest of the exam in the nurses room. Not ideal.

After that experience I should probably have stayed well away from any form of printing, however the excitement of sharp implements, unusual chemicals & old school printing presses at City & Guilds of London art school where I did a foundation year drew me straight back in. During my year there I spent quite a bit of time printing in all manner of ways. Lino, etching, woodcut, aquatint, drypoint, engraving, monotype, silkscreen, lithography. You name it. Most enjoyable AND I still have 10 fingers.

A friend of mine at photography college in Newcastle is interested in the technique of 'photoetching' & so the two of us popped along to the gallery & printmaking studio 'Nothern Print' in Newcastle. http://www.northernprint.org.uk/pages/home.php

It was rather wonderful. I particularly enjoyed the loo (not just because it offered a pleasant relief after a hefty cup of tea, but also because the decorations involved birds & trees. I am a big fan of birds & trees.)

It all started with a FINE ARSE..

 Those printing folk not such a fan of Will & Kate babes? Shame.

...And it all ended with a FINE ARSE. In a manner of speaking.