First Test Prints from Spain!

Here's a sneak peek at my new linocut print series here in Spain. I just did this first run of test prints tonight. This was taken with the camera on my aging iPad and is pretty fuzzy, but it gives you an idea of what I've been up to. It's taken a huge amount of work to get to this point!  I've been hitting the studio early in the morning and staying until my hands could carve no more. I've loved every second of it. 

Part of why I was working so hard was that I wanted to be able to take a few days off to visit Valencia for Las Fallas, their big annual festival. We took the bus down there on Sunday morning and rented an adorable little flat right in the heart of the old town through airbnb. It was a total blast!  They make these huge sculptures called Fallas (pronounced 'fayas', which is good, because it keeps you from walking around saying "wow, look at that huge phallus!"  

They're all over the city

 Most of them are elaborate and massive, and at the end they burn them all!  Crazy. It started in days of old, where everyone brought out all the stuff they no longer needed and they burned it as a kind of civic purge/spring clean. Now there's a huge fireworks show every night, street parties, pageants and a constant stream of parades.  We rented bikes and toured every inch of the city. 

It was fun, but exhausting. I was very glad to get back here last night, climb into my bed, and get back to printmaking this morning. 

Here's a closer view of the test prints, again with the fuzzy iPad camera. I did them with a wooden spoon, but there is an old press here that I'm planning to resurrect with a little help (and elbow grease) from my new friends. 

     

Now time to get some sleep so I can make my adjustments and pull more of these tomorrow, and possibly even start playing with some colour!  Stay tuned...