Lino print artist

My lino printing story

I studied several fine art printmaking methods, and intended to make collagraph, monotype, and woodcut, part of my oeuvre.

Lino printing has proved so fascinating, however, it's left little space, so far, for developing other original print techniques.

When I first started printmaking over 12 years ago, there were few artists making prints. Making simple lino prints has since become a fashionable hobby, resulting in an explosion of one and two colour prints for sale.

One or two colour prints are easy to make, and are guaranteed to look quite pleasing because of their simplicity, even when poorly executed.

I'm unusual because I make original prints using more than two colours. It's an involved and challenging thing to do. That's why not everyone does it.

Handmade are always 'Limited editions'

I've always made limited edition lino prints. This means that if a print is one of a limited edition of 25, then there will never be more than 25 in existance.

My limited editions are as small as 10, and so far, no bigger than 75 impressions. Each print in an edition is called an impression

I'm a lino artist who uses two lino printing approaches to make the multi-coloured prints in my collection.

The first way uses multiple pieces of lino, one for each colour in the print. The second way uses just one lino sheet from start to finish.

A single lino block is cut away a little more between each colour added to the lino art (called ‘reduction‑cut’ printmaking).

Coloured linoprints are complicated to make and many lino printing artists stick to using just one colour only, two at the most.

My lino art is currently for sale only in Yorkshire, UK (as at 2023). I hope to add more locations in the near future, and offer prints to buy, here, on this website.

Artist's lino, or linoleum, is a sheet material made largely from cork/wood dust and linseed oil. It has a hemp backing attached to it, to help stop it cracking.

Lino comes in two colours: yellowish-brown and grey. There's not really any difference between the two colours in my opinion, though I understand some people find one is very slightly softer, so easier to carve.

Artist's lino is not the same as the flooring, though it was originally.

Lino is a soft material, so it's not difficult to carve using almost anything with a blade. Unlike wood, used for woodcut printing, there's no wood grain to deal with, so it can be cut in any direction.

Its surface is also uniform and smooth – perfect for ink without any initial preparation. Altogether, it's an easy-going material to make art with.

Lino is a very ordinary material, that is nevertheless capable of being used to make extraordinarily beautiful art – its ordinariness is one reason why I like it.

A softy, but not butter

Lino needs looking after, like anything. It's limitations are minor, and easily accounted for.

For example, it won't take really fine cuts, because it is in fact quite a brittle material. Very fine detail is liable to break off, especially after it's been put through a printmaking press several times.

Because it's soft, it also has to be stored where it can't end up being damaged by things pressing against it, or subject to extreme temperatures. It can warp or curl and it ages, becoming harder to carve and prone to breaking.

Some artists glue their piece of lino to wood before they cut a picture into it, in order I assume, to stabilize the pliable medium. I've never found the need to do this myself.

Oddly, despite being soft, tools used for carving lino become blunt much quicker than those used for carving wood. I'll admit my linocut tools always need sharpening.

Big or small art printing ambitions

Unlike other printmaking media, lino comes in large sheets and many professional artists delight in taking advantage of this by printing huge linocuts. I've limited myself, so far, to pieces of lino that will fit my small printmaker's press and everyone's wall space.

Though I plan to make some slightly larger linocuts, using a baren instead of my press, small linoprints can be as rich and vibrant as larger ones. (A baren is a disk of material, used to firmly rub the sheet of paper placed over the inked lino block.)

A creative artist's medium

Though lino is simple to work with, it's capable of making beautiful, sophisticated, complex art.

A relatively modern material, it supports long established ways of making prints. Indeed, it's a close cousin to woodcut, just without the wood grain! It can be carved much like woodcuts, but also impressed or etched. Many of the effects possible using printmaking materials with a longer history can be achieved with lino too – so it's not a crude material, but a great creative medium, and that's why I'm a lino print artist.

What is a lino print? (In pictures)