Foxglove Grove

Limited edition of 17; reduction linocut

A fox stands quietly between foxgloves that form an arch around her.
She might also be emerging from a cave, with the foxgloves flanking the cavern's entrance.
The fox calmly locks eyes with the viewer. 

A few years ago was an abundant Digitalis season; groups of foxgloves seemed to be everywhere, weaving and waving in the wind, and I became slightly obsessed with them, photographing them, sketching them, trying to work out the plant’s architecture and the internal structure of the flowers. Then the idea of combining foxgloves and foxes took over.

The ‘model’ for the fox in Foxglove Grove is my favourite little vixen, based on a photograph I took a of her in our local museum gardens. It was the first time I had seen her in a while; she had given birth to cubs a few months earlier and seemed to spend most of her time with them, nursing them, not emerging from her den (or if she did I never saw her.) That day she sauntered towards me through a meadow speckled with flowers. She was painfully thin, her fur looking tattered. It took a few months but slowly she started looking stronger again, her fur growing back. And even in her thin and slightly bedraggled state when she first re-emerged, she had never lost her fierce spirit or beauty.

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This is a reduction linocut, i.e. one block was used to print the colour layers. This process cannot be repeated, i.e. it is a true limited edition.

There is a range of colour variations: the first layer of the print ranges from shades of dusky pink through magenta, lilac (a very light purple) and a medium blue with a hint of lavender.

The final layer is printed in black water-based relief printing ink.

The print you receive might differ slightly from the one on screen. Each linocut is individually inked, printed by hand and is unique.

Please be assured that I only enter prints that I believe to be beautiful into the limited edition.

Paper size: 420mm x 300mm (16.4" x 11.6") approx.
Print Size: 300mm x 200mm (11.6" x 8") approx.

Printed on acid free cartridge paper, 190gsm.