Thanks Val, after all those fascinating prints of belemnites and ammonites I was wondering how to progress the blog. There are so many beautiful beasts out there!

Fortunately, things have a way of just happening and on our dog walk yesterday morning, who should I see but a fox outlined in the morning sun and just  about to cross the frosty path in front of us.  Fortunately I managed to put our lurcher, Poppy, on the lead before she saw him or picked up his scent otherwise the two of them would have been chasing through woods and over fields for the rest of the morning.

I took it as a sign and thought about a poem by Ted Hughes called 'The Thought Fox' which is part of his debut collection The Hawk in the Rain [1957]. He perfectly captures the ethereal, almost magical quality of a fox moving across the snow at night. You can hear him reading the poem on 'youtube' if you're interested  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHclDG71OlA  Absolutely wonderful and a great source of inspiration!

THE THOUGHT-FOX

I imagine this midnight moment’s forest:
Something else is alive
Beside the clock’s loneliness
And this blank page where my fingers move.
 

Through the window I see no star:
Something more near

Though deeper within darkness
Is entering the loneliness:

Cold, delicately as the dark snow,
A fox’s nose touches twig, leaf;
Two eyes serve a movement, that now
And again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snow
Between trees, and warily a lame
Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
Of a body that is bold to come

Across clearings, an eye,

A widening deepening greenness,
Brilliantly, concentratedly,
Coming about its own business

Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox

It enters the dark hole of the head.

The window is starless still; the clock ticks,

The page is printed.

 

Next step - to draw a series of small sketches in my sketch book  to work out ideas for a lino cut, and the line about the fox's nose touching the twig makes such a vivid picture in my mind. I need to decide on tonal values, position and size of the fox and what sort of background to use so these sketches are a quick way to try out ideas.

 

 

Should I use a different block for each colour or use the reduction method and print different colours using the same block? ...Decisions, decisions.

By Wed this week I shall have some first prints done even though  the image may not be finished so join me then if you can and see what decisions I made and how things are progressing..........