Linoprints are very much ‘art for everyone’. Accessible, affordable and attractive, there’re good reasons that so many of us love a linoprint in our home. Original art is a wonderful thing but very often it’s inaccessible and out of reach. Print art on the other hand, brings joy to an interior without breaking the bank - prints add colour, graphic design and often gentle humour and they don’t cost the earth.
Linoprinting also offers a very direct connection to the artist. My limited edition print runs are usually only 50 and I hand carve and handprint them all in my studio here in Oxfordshire. It’s a personal process, simple and old fashioned, using time honoured techniques and materials that haven’t changed much in decades. There’s a certain naivety to printmaking - the lines cut by the hand tool are always still visible and the manual printing process means that, try as we might to achieve consistency, each print will be very slightly different! I think really, that’s part of it’s charm.
My linoprints of the Cornish coast are particularly popular - and not just in homes by the sea. Perhaps inland (in rural Oxfordshire perhaps) putting a seaside print on your wall is even more appealing - whisking you back to the water and the memories of salty, sandy holidays on the beautiful coastline of my homeland. Cornwall is a truly special place, very close to my heart and the inspiration for images is never ending.
With the kitchen ‘the heart of the home’, it’s worth taking time to create a space that feels special and that’s where print art comes into its own. With much time spent on the allotment with my wife (who is a talented cook), I often take inspiration from the simple ingredients around us every day. Whether that’s a freshly harvested cabbage, a Cornish mackerel straight off the boat, a boiled egg and soldiers or a pasty to eat in my favourite spot on the harbour wall - I have carved all of these subjects and they make wonderful wall art to liven up a living space….and raise a wry smile!
My retro prints are also a particular passion of mine. I thoroughly enjoy celebrating iconic designs from the past and immortalising them in the simplest of ways. A walkman, a gameboy, a cassette tape, an old school ‘film’ camera - all transport me back to a simpler, more analogue time and make lighthearted images for the wall. Most recently I’ve ‘taken to the road’ and completed a campervan print, a Vespa print and one of a classic Landrover, textured and muddy from bumping down countryside lanes. Perfect as presents and particular favourites for the ‘hard to buy for’ man in your life!
Whether you are looking for coastal prints, retro prints, kitchen prints or a simple, graphic, handmade picture for your wall, I hope my LinoLord page will inspire your own gallery wall. After all, these are images of the everyday that, as the artist make me smile and that’s surely the best place to start - you’ve got to love what you do and I hope that other people will too.