A plan and strategy is prepared, the work which is to come divided into compartments of activity, each compartment relating to a colour and the amount of surface which that colour will occupy. Erosion scraping, cutting of large pieces of lino, or cutting and engraving of miniature lemonwood, prepares the block for the printing of its first colour. The whole edition is printed because the same block is then further eroded or engraved in preparation for printing the second and subsequent colours. In my case my terrain is the block. Landscape may appear, as behind the raindrops or condensation on a window, but it is there only as a prop or backdrop, supporting the main activity which is preparing the ground for the abstract interplay of several colours.
May 1992