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Making the Magpie Silver reduction linocut



One for sorrow

Two for joy

Three for a girl and

Four for a boy

Five for silver

Six for gold 

Seven for a secret never told 

Eight's a wish and

Nine a kiss,

Ten is a bird, You must not miss. 


There are many versions of this very old rhyme but I've never come across a version that varies much before eight. Some have up to 20 birds... I think they are getting a bit carried away (a whole Hitchcock film's worth!)


Back in 2017 I hadn't been painting and printing for myself again for very long. I'd finished in teaching and I was in the middle of one of those big DIY projects that you have to do when you have time but no money to pay for a builder. This painting 'Magpie Silver' was made in what is now my studio amongst the rubble and chaos during a cold and snowy February. Here is what I wrote in my blog at the time...


'Outside the magpies have been making their usual machine gun racket over the last few weeks. Four for a boy this morning! All in the same small medlar tree about ten paces from my door. They are difficult to watch and sketch though, they really know when I try to look at them and fly off, however sneaky I get.

I've been working on quite a formal composition with five (silver) magpies. Quite nasty birds really. I know they were just born that way but they can be relentless when there are smaller birds around. Their feathers are so beautiful and iridescent (I've collected a few on my workbench from the garden). The hedge across the road with ivy berries has made a good foreground and the Crug which was covered in snow for a couple of days is behind.

I'm still not sure it is finished but I'll 'live with it'for a bit before I make any changes.

The Red Kite in the sketch may get its own painting at some time, I felt it made the sky too busy'.





I was really pleased with the final painting. It is acrylic on linen. It has been in several exhibitions, not least of which was The Natural Eye Exhibition in the Mall Gallery for the Association of Wildlife Artists. I was so pleased to get two pieces of work accepted. it is probably the one thing that made me realise that it was worth pursuing painting and printing a bit more seriously.



The other piece of work accepted was a small reduction print called Usk Trout



So after recently finishing the Deluge print, his year, I felt more (over?) confident and ready to attempt to make a reduction linocut of the composition. I had tried it before, shortly after the painting was finished and it was a disaster! Ink to thick, layers not properly thought through and clumsy and it was never finished.

What I've ended up with this time isn't a direct copy. I've changed the composition, zoomed in a bit and moved the birds slightly. Lino printing is very 'graphic' and its difficult to get soft edges and tonal blends, so it's best not to try. Instead I've tried to give the image more movement and the magpies a little more definition.




I had planned for the print to take five layers of cutting and printing but it ended up with six. The darker areas of the foreground needed more subtlety.

I always find greens difficult to get right in my prints. Ivy leaves are quite bluish but it was a struggle to get them right in comparison to the blue greys in the rest of the image. I hope I've got somewhere near to the sheen on the tail of a magpie in he final print.


This is a one minute video of some of the tecniqus and processes involved in making the Magpie Silver print.




An animation of the build up of layers of the print.


I think the new print is a good partner for another one of my recent prints, the Blustery Day Badger. Same size and format, different colours (although both work the black and white) and seasons.





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