Featured artist: Diana Croft

Our featured artist Diana talks about her prints “Flying High” and “Across the Bay”, two reduction linocuts of the coast stretching into the distance that bring both scale and movement to these big views in her signature style.

"Flying High", reduction linocut by Diana Croft

What made you want to make these prints and where were they inspired by?

"Flying High" is an imagined landscaped based heavily on the Sussex coast, places like Beachy Head and Birling Gap, but obviously from a viewpoint I could never have achieved. I have a particular connection with this area having lived in Brighton when I was at Art College and it’s an area I return to again and again for walks, a sense of space and inspiration. I was brought up by the sea in Whitstable and I feel a deep-seated need to visit it frequently as I no longer have it on my doorstep. 

I liked the idea of a swallow’s viewpoint over the landscape. They are iconic birds of the British summer, although sadly not as common as they used to be. When I was growing up, we had a pair that returned each year and nested in our garage, so I feel a deep connection to them.

"Across the Bay", reduction linocut by Diana Croft

"Across the Bay" is actually inspired by the French north coast town of Fécamp, which I visited a while ago.

I liked the ambiguity that it could be either France or England, as the cliffs are so similar, showing how the two land masses were once joined. It is also an oblique reference to our link to Europe, which seems fundamental and rooted in history.

With landscapes, there is always the challenge of there being a lot of visual information in the view. How do you decide what to focus on and what to leave out so you can make a successful linocut?

I want the linocuts to work primarily as successful compositions and designs rather than accurate representations of particular places, so there is always a lot to leave out. I try not to go above more than six colours when printing my linocuts and that in itself means I have to be quite selective in what I decide to include. 

Diana's sketch for "Across the Bay", planning the colour layers and composition

Early layers of colour for "Across the Bay". Each colour is printed and then the lino block is cut away further so the next colour layer can be printed

Adding the brown layer to the print

More layers of colour are added as the block is further cut, reinked and printed over the previous layers

The rolling motion of the clouds gives these a nice sense of movement. Was that something you particularly wanted to get into these? How did you develop that abstracted style?

Yes I wanted to create a feeling of a windy day with racing clouds. I seem to have developed a particular style with my curly clouds, which have now become a bit of a signature feature. I don’t remember consciously deciding to do it, it just emerged. I do tend to exaggerate the curves in my designs to create a sense of movement and rhythm, both in the sky and within the landscape.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/575f01_a8229271e17746148dc4ed2d13cb837c/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

This is many hours of carving the block, inking up and printing different colours condensed into a few seconds

How do you go about giving these such a sense of scale and distance when it’s such a big view?

In "Flying High", I really wanted to give a bird's eye view, which illustrates the sense of freedom of the wide open landscapes and the feeling of swooping over them so the clouds and the swallow were directly in the foreground, with the fields and builds below just patterns on the ground.

In "Across the Bay", I liked the idea of showing the long grasses and wild flowers in the foreground. I was trying to capture the movement in them, with the shapes echoing the clouds above, with glimpses through to the beach, cliffs and the sea beyond.

I decided to design these works without people pictured in them, as I like the idea of peaceful, quiet landscapes, concentrating on the wild natural elements of the scene.

These are quite different and yet complementary as a pair. How did you go about your colour choices?

I like to use a fairly limited palette in my work and am particularly fond of turquoises and blues contrasting against small accents of orange or terracotta, which act as focus points.

My colours are often not naturalistic, but are chosen to express the atmosphere of the place.

Diana is the featured artist in our gallery in Greenwich until September 13, and her wonderful reduction linocut prints are available there and in our online shop all year round. For more information, visit her artist's page, her website and follow her on Instagram @dianacroftart.