Engraving a block of lemonwood in my garden studio, listening to the bird song 🐦‍⬛ This is a multiple block wood engraving, 3 more blocks to follow. The final image will be made by all 4 blocks printed in layers. #printmakingart #woodengraving

Only 2 days left to visit my solo exhibition at WhiteSpace gallery 76 E Crosscauseway in Edinburgh. Lovely fellow printmaker @sarahrossthompson.bsky.social stopped by the other day and took these photos (the first one is my fave 🤣) Here today until 4 and tomorrow 11-2. #edinburghartist #printmaking

The opening of my exhibition was wonderful, thank to everyone who came! A huge ‘thank you’ to Doug Tiplady 🎷, Dave Ellis (double bass) and Graeme Stephen for making my big night very special! The exhibition is open 11-4pm until Thursday the 10th 📍WhiteSpace Gallery 76 E Crosscauseway EH8 9HQ

The very beginning of a multi-block wood engraving #woodengraving #printmakingart

A colour wood engraving. 10 months in the works, not everything worked out and I’m not sure I’m entirely happy about it - need to put some distance between us as I’ve been staring at it for too long! Pandora looking at a jar she’s not supposed to open. #printmaking #woodengraving

I’m happy to say that I’ll be teaching 2 linocut workshops during my upcoming exhibition in Edinburgh - an introductory half-a-day on Sunday 6 July and a full day on Tue 8 July. Very small classes, friendly and relaxing environment. Booking is open now: www.mashaandtheprints.com/classes

On the home stretch with this colour wood engraving I started in September. I’ve struggled with this on and off for 9 months now, almost convincing myself that it won’t be anything like what I envisaged when I set off. Can’t wait to proof all the colours together and see for myself if it worked 🤞

✨ SAVE THE DATE ✨ I’m thrilled to announce an upcoming solo exhibition of wood engravings and linocuts. 5-10th of July at WhiteSpace gallery. There will be linocut and wood engraving demos and I’m also planning to run a workshop-more details to follow. So excited (and a tad nervous) about this! ☺️🤞

Results of some inky play. Fiddly to print these overlapping blocks but I like how the results are all different. #printmaking #linocut

‘Autumn in Holyrood’ multiple block linocut, fresh off the press. Music by my other half Doug Tiplady 🎷 and his band SunJuice

Finished! A new linocut, 17 colours over 4 carved blocks of Lino. Pretty happy with it. Tried a few new things here, I especially enjoyed the slightly abstract elements - more of that to come I think. Inspired by our beautiful neighbourhood (Holyrood in Southside Edinburgh). #printmakingart

Results of a little play with old blocks of lino. Enjoyed that, maybe an idea for a fabric pattern if I ever get round to making one. 🤔

‘Peonies’ linocut from 2020 with a new colour way - a blend of green and pink. Very tricky to ink up and blend these two colours (on the same block of lino) so only got 2 good prints. Like this colour combo though.

A glimpse of where I’m at with this multi-block linocut. It kind of grew arms and legs and the proofing is taking ages. There are plenty of colours on 4 blocks and the intensity and transparency of each colour needs to be just right, and each layer needs to dry before I print the next layer.

Chipping away at block n3 of this multi-block linocut. I’m building a new body of work for the Festival of Printmaking in Stirling University 15-17 Aug. I’m absolutely delighted to be taking part again - our very first festival last august was incredible. @printersofscotland.bsky.social

The sun is out again, I’m taking advantage of a better light to take more photos of recent work. Here is ‘March’ - a small (7x8cm) 5-block wood engraving, printed directly from the engraved blocks on my beautiful antique Albion press called Esme. #printmakingart #woodengraving

A day of boring admin, mounting and framing as I prepare work to take to Buchanan Galleries (SDX store) in Glasgow

More photos of colour wood engraving ‘March’. I printed it on 2 types of paper: smooth white Liber Charta and ‘warm white’ BFK Rives (2nd photo) - it has a wonderful texture.

We will soon announce all our exhibitors for our Festival of Printmaking in August and post images of their work! To have a sneak preview, go to www.printmakersofscotland.com where you can see the names of the printmakers taking part. You can also subscribe for updates. #printmaking #scotland

‘March’ - a 5-block wood engraving. Very happy with it. ☺️ I wanted it to be a playful and colourful celebration of all things spring - my absolute favourite season. The first few prints from the edition are now in my website www.mashaandtheprints.com/product-page...

Happy Spring Equinox! ‘Spring is here’ is a little wood engraving from a couple of years ago. So much inspiration around at this time of year 🪻💐🌹

I pulled a few prints from this block (before engraving it further), it’s one of the 5 blocks that form my latest multi-block wood engraving, but I liked the look of it by itself in olive green 💚 The colour engraving is coming very soon - the ‘big reveal’ and a process video to follow 😊

Decided to add the 5th block to this multi-block wood engraving. A bit of an impromptu move and the block I have is a different size and shape to the other 4 so aligning everything is tricky but printmaking is mostly about dealing with challenges, isn’t it? 🤞

A sneak peek of the proofing in progress. Lots of overlapping colours = lots of variations depending on the shade I mix, transparency etc. This is one of the many proofs after 3 layers, still 2 layers to go. Feeling happy about the way this wood engraving is going ☺️

Working on block number two of four of this colour wood engraving. Most of the decisions have been made, can’t wait to start proofing. #woodengraving #printmaking

If you are followed by Printmakers of Scotland - please follow back if you can and share our posts. These prints are by one of our members, Bryan Angus. Bryan will be one of 45 artists at our Festival of Printmaking! (University of Stirling 15-17 Aug). #printmaking #universityofstirling #scotland

This is our first post - by Bryan Angus who was chosen by the public as our 'Printmaker of the Year 2024'. Bryan will be at our Festival of Printmaking 15-17 Aug, University of Stirling. Please follow us and see some amazing work as we announce our 2025 line-up! #printmaking #art #scotland

Next step- transferring the image from the ‘key’ block to other blocks to be engraved. I made a simple registration jig and printed the key block on tracing paper (anything non-absorbent will do). I then replace the key block with a new block and offset the image. #printmaking #woodengraving

Ready for the next step - offsetting the key block onto the next 3 blocks, to act as a guide to engraving the colour elements. There’ll be quite a few colours - a bit of a challenge on such a small scale 🤞 #printmaking #woodengraving

Getting there. Another few hours of engraving and I’ll be able to take a proof and offset it onto the block number two of this multiple-block wood engraving. #printmaking #woodengraving

This wood engraving is coming along nicely. This is a key block, another 3 blocks to follow. Love working on such a tiny scale, the blocks are only 7x7cm. #printmaking #printmakingart #woodengraving

Started on a small colour wood engraving to celebrate the end of February (good riddance, the darkest month). Working on a key block first, another 3 blocks for colour to follow. #printmaking #printmakingart #woodengraving

Building up the layers on this multiple-block linocut ‘Summer’. One more block (2 colours) to print on top. Lots of fiddly inking on a small scale, will be glad to finish it. #printmaking #linocut

I’m thrilled to show you my little garden studio built by Mr T. So happy to have a proper dedicated space, with clever storage to fit ALL my stuff. The family got their living room back and I got this bubble of peace and printmaking bliss I can escape to ❤️ Happy days ☺️ #printmaking

Pulled a proof of this tiny (6x8cm) engraving on resingrave - a funny synthetic material I found at the bottom of a drawer. Don’t recommend the material but enjoyed engraving this tree. Might do something with it on a bigger scale and on proper wood 🤔 #woodengraving #printmaking

I’m enjoying engraving this little block of resingrave, more than expected, actually. It’s not anywhere as nice to engrave as wood, and it crumbles etc BUT I think because I wasn’t precious about this block it loosened me up a bit. #printmaking #woodengraving

Discovered lots of art materials I forgot I had during my recent studio move. Like this resingrave block - a cheaper alternative to end grain wood. I bought it years ago but never tried until today. As expected-not anywhere as nice as wood, crumbles and ‘feels’ wrong but I’ll give it a try.

A little seasonal linocut from last year. Might do another print with daffodils 🌼 or other spring flowers 🤔 #printmaking #linocut #daffodils

Just got back from a trip to London to see the Annual Show of the Society of Wood Engravers. I’m thrilled to have 2 prints selected this year. ☺️ Here is me next to one of them - ‘Blossom by blossom’ wood engraving. The show is on at Bankside gallery until 23/02, then tours the UK.

Esme The press has been safely moved into my garden studio 🎉😅 Mr T is busy building a bespoke storage as the space is small and we need to be clever. Here are some photos from the move (the press weights 800kg!) and a ‘strength potion’ our girl made for dad 🥹#printmaker #printmaking #reliefprint

Had the last printing session in my current studio space (aka most of the living room 😀). Esme The Press will be making a trip across the garden into my new studio tomorrow! 😬🫣. A bit nerve racking as she weighs about 800kg. Wish us luck! This is ‘The Darkling Thrush’ wood engraving (2022)

Happy Imbolc, a Celtic celebration of the returning of the light. ‘Blossom by blossom’ is a wood engraving I made last year. The snowdrops and croci are not fully open yet but it’s not long now. Can’t wait for spring 🌿 #printmaking #woodengraving #reliefprint #traditionalart

Multiple block linocut WIP. Next step: transfer of the carved ‘key block’ onto another 3 blocks to be carved. I usually just print/offset it from a tracing paper or acetate but in this case decided to use a red carbon paper instead. I always stain the lino dark to better see where I carved.

This wood engraving has been on the back burner since September. A multiple block print, 4 blocks in total, 3 of which are nearly finished. Engraving a figure is nerve racking! Inspired by a Greek myth, wonderfully retold by the one and only Stephen Fry. #printmaking #woodengraving

A multi-block wood engraving ‘Selkie’ (2 blocks of wood +2 block of lino to be precise). I’ve added a few to my website www.mashaandtheprints.com #woodengraving #selkie #reliefprint

Carbon transfer takes time to set - If I now leave that carbon for at least 24 hours it will set and the stain will last through all the printing and cleaning. Use it straight away and it will probably transfer to the print & disappear very quickly with cleaning

Inked up this block to transfer/offset it to another 3 blocks of lino that I’ll be carving to add colours. First ink is always exciting! Lots of things to fix but nothing too bad.

Pulling the Pigeons... I'm tempted to make another edition of this linocut print🤔

Printing the 3rd layer of this colour wood engraving ‘Selkie’ today. One more layer to go. #woodengraving #xilography #printmakingart

A very enjoyable work in progress-a multiple block linocut, inspired by the local landscape of Edinburgh Southside. The first block is nearly done, another 3 to go.