chriswoodartist

I do all my printmaking on a large kitchen table that sits in pride of place, in centre of our front room, on the hall floor. In the floor above the front room is my home studio, where I draw, paint, carve and engrave, prior to going down below to use the press. The print room or front room is kept tidier than the rest of the house and it’s the room where visitors get ushered into so it has a sofa and two comfy chairs plus an Ikea rocking chair that we inherited from a good friend. The room is also home to about 30% of my art books so there’s always plenty to read. Last November 2024, I was invited to exhibit about six prints alongside the Southern Ceramics Group in the Oxmarket Contemporary Art Gallery in Chichester. In common with many exhibitions it was a rush to get everything finished and delivered to the gallery but I made it and the joint show of printmaking and ceramics looked fabulous. It was very well attended and I saw several old friends and colleagues, both from ArtSpace and my former life as an art teacher.

Here are a few of the prints which also featured in my studio as part of ArtSpace Open Studios in July 2025

Below : linocut of Cliff Quay, Barges and Tolly Cobbold brewery, Ipswich Suffolk. The two colour print was made from one plate (piece of Lino). It was carefully inked up, fading the grey/blue sky into the Sepia Barges. This was achieved by using a series of small rollers, rolling out the brown first, followed by the sky and avoiding too much overlapping. I deliberately inked the foreground with a darker tone, thus creating depth and a slightly misty look to the horizon.

It’s crazy how time flies and having made the series of prints, I was going to make more but other projects, not least my boat and summer, got in the way. The next set of Ipswich prints will feature barges under sail and in the foreground, I’d like to include some people. The plan is to create a timeless quality with layers of imagery, perhaps like my life drawings – we shall see !