My 'Circle Series' of linocut prints refers to three of my favourate prints from late 2025 and early 2026.
'Family Circle' is a handmade linocut print of three members of the Corvid family; a jay, a magpie, and a crow. This is a reduction print, printed onto 51gsm Okawara Select paper, with oil-based ink.
'Inner Circle' is a handmade linocut print of three members of the superfamily ‘Certhioidea’ belonging to the infraorder Passerida containing wrens, treecreepers, and nuthatches. This is a reduction print, printed onto 145gsm Zerkall paper with oil-based ink.
'Stone Circle' is a handmade linocut print of three small wading birds; a common ringed plover, sanderling, and dunlin. This is a reduction print, printed onto 51gsm Okawara Select paper, with oil-based ink.
Each print features three different birds that I have seen locally, using my own photographs as reference. Below you can see examples of my reference photos used for Inner Circle, with a treecreeper to the left, wren in the centre, and nuthatch to the right.
Like most of my prints, the ideas for these each started out as pencil drawings in my sketchbook. The series started with Family Circle and then the concept spread across the other two prints to create the series. Below you can see the sketch transferred to the lino for Family Circle, and the initial two sketches for Inner Circle and Stone Circle in my sketchbook.
Once transferred to the lino block I can begin carving. These are reduction prints meaning that the lino is cut away and as each colour layer is printed and the next is carved, working from light to dark. The red colour on the lino is due to it being stained with watered down acrylic paint (before transferring the image) to help the carved areas to stand out more.
Some of the layers (especially on Family Circle where there were larger areas of flat black) where printed using my Gunning Etching press, while other printed by hand using a glass baren for maximum control. Below you can see the final prints for each design.
Family Circle:
