Christmas cards first introduced Carlton Cox to an art form that would shape his artistic career.
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Each year, his family would create a series of linocut cards to give out to celebrate the festive season.
While the Longford-based printmaker grew up with plenty of arts materials to experiment with, printmaking was the medium that he was continually drawn back to.
He first studied a Bachelor of Applied Sciences, but discovered he felt more at home in the creative side of the field.
Cox joined an Arts Council workshop which renewed his passion for linocut about 25 years ago.
“It made me take [printmaking] more seriously,” Cox said.
He dabbled in watercolour, but remembered his course teacher saying “Carlton, watercolour is not for you”.
Cox is a horticulturalist by day, but returns to his passion for linocuts at night.
His prints feature in a solo exhibition Ink Excursions at the Blenheim Gallery and Garden in Longford this month.
The complexities of an artform undertaken in reverse meant he had plenty of opportunities to develop his style and techniques.
“Printmaking is a complicated process that requires the completion of many steps that are performed in a particular order to produce the final art work. Having a sound foundation in printmaking has proven to be a huge asset,” he said.
“You have to produce a negative … then work backwards to create a final piece.”
However, Cox added more complicated steps to the process as he created multi-coloured pieces.
That meant to add each colour, he either needed to create a separate linocut block or carefully add different colours to the same block, he said.
His multi-coloured pieces were inspired by birds and buildings around his home in Longford.
If a creature or a scene caught his eye, he took a quick reference photo or a sketch before the laborious linocut process started.
It could take up to one month to produce a print as the drying process could be a week long wait, Cox said.
Layering on inks took time and a print could change quite quickly if he wanted a different look.
The linocuts were handcarved, adding to the process length, he said.
Each print was usually created in an edition of 20.
Even if a print was selling well, he wouldn’t repeat the linocut.
“It’s an unspoken part of printmaking,” Cox said.
“I always want to be progressing and looking ahead.”
- Carlton Cox’s Ink Excursions exhibition will be on show at the Blenheim Gallery and Garden in Longford between March 2 and 28.