Variations on a theme, Peacock Feather.

It's been several weeks since I've attempted any printing, mainly because I've been taking some time out with the children with the school holidays. It seems that summer has by-passed us a little a we're now heading rapidly towards Autumn, and yesterday we saw weather that would be suitable in November rather than high August!

So it seemed a good day to try a little printing again. I've been thinking about some new prints, wanting to go bolder and bigger than my usual work, something fresh and new for the Autumn.

So i set about carving a print based upon the peacock feather, a lovely decorative image that can be interpreted in so many different ways. The first plate i cut turned out to be a return to type for me, a heavily folk inspired piece and perhaps still a little influenced by the meeting i had with Saira and her beautiful saris several weeks ago......

I was really pleased with this print, and the colours worked really well, but it wasn't the simple design i was looking for. So i decided to look again at the peacock feather design, this time keeping it very simple and stylized. I cut a new plate and decided to print on larger paper (A3 as opposed to the usual A4 size)

Although the second print needs a little tweaking and is far from the finished article,  it was great to get the idea and print actually down on paper and has given my the inspiration i need for working larger in the future.