Lazy Afternoon
The beginning of a project exploring the WWII heritage on our Orkney island, Lazy Afternoon is a three block multiblock linocut, a warm, comforting reminder of the pleasure of sunshine, the feeling of success after (moderate) exercise, and a celebration of the way nature always manages to reclaim what has been taken and changed.
Printed area 20x15cm, paper size approx A4
Edition of eight, hand pulled using oil based inks on Japanese Hosho paper, signed and numbered
The concrete structures of lookout towers, gun emplacements and munitions stores still stand visible in our landscape, but now their remains feel more like stunningly beautiful brutalist architecture, set amidst a sea of snaggled grasses and wild flowers; a far cry from their intended purpose.
Here, nature has cracked apart human-made structures, flooding the gaps created with lichen, plantlife, even water. Today, a visit to this lookout point is a chance to perch on the clifftop, metres above the sea, and gaze north to the outer isles, feeling warm sun (or driving wind) on your skin. Careful layers of ink, blended wet on wet, recall the memory of a late summer afternoon, soaking up the peace of the world with my best friend.
