“As usual, to escape the real world happenings I stuck my head in work and decided to create my biggest lino print yet,” printmaker Shelly Brown tells us. This lino block was A2 in size; double the size she has worked on previously, reflecting her need to challenge herself.
Shelly is an illustrative printmaker, focusing primarily on lino print as her medium. She brings the everyday mundane to life, with quirky mini prints, and larger scale patterns. Based in Ely, Cambridgeshire and originally from South Africa, people and their lives are her main subject focus.
Her latest large-sale print design, Foodies, came from finding joy through little things, and for Shelly that joy is cooking and eating good food. She describes; “I decided to capture the moment that first mouthful hits the tastebuds in a sea of people having that ‘finger licking good’ moment. Each person different, some sharing, others indulging independently.”
The lino block took 150 hours to build, design, and carve, and even had the printmaker questioning if she would ever finish it! Shelly built the composition using photos and sketches she had collected over months, which she pieced together like a puzzle. Not owning a press large enough to print the block, printing was another challenge. Thus, Shelly returned to “the good old days” of burnishing by hand, using her trusty wooden spoon. Each print took around an hour to print by hand; “you can definitely call this one a labour of love”.
The design includes favourite dishes, Shelly’s ride or die condiments, and those foodgasm moments. Shelly comments; “I smile every time I look at it, and hope it brings the same sense of joy to others”.
www.shellybrownillustration.com
@shelly_brown_illustration
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