LINO PRINTING IN SEATON
When Victorian businessman Frederick Walton invented linoleum in 1860, he would never have imagined that his floor covering, made from linseed oil, would soon be used as an artist’s medium; a surface into which a design could be gouged, from which a reverse image is printed. Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso popularised the art form during the 1940s and 50s.
If, at school, you progressed from potato prints to lino prints, you might remember tough floor tiles that were difficult to cut. Today, soft polymer sheets made especially for cutting and printing from, are much easier to work with.
The medium suits images with strong lines and areas of contrast, so lends itself easily to Christmas themes such as snow on conifers or starry nights. Likewise, coastal scenes work well: the glitter of sun on sea or the foam of charging white horses. ‘Waves shape the shore. Shore shapes the waves’ are the words that accompany a sculpture of two curling breakers framing
