What is an Original Print?
Original prints are not photographic, or scanned, copies of paintings. A printmaker sets out to create a print, and only a print, from the very beginning of the creative process.
Original printmaking does not involve a painting being painted, then taken somewhere to have it photographed (or scanned) in order to print copies using computerised modern printing machinery.
The fine artist printmaker works directly on the 'plates' in person, perhaps from an initial sketch or drawing; they mix the inks, ink the plates, position the inked plates and paper on a simple press, wind the press and hang the prints to dry ready to do it all over again with another colour. Each print in an edition is personally and methodically made by the printmaker, generally with the minimum of machinery. (It should be said: there are artists who commission printmakers to produce original prints from their artwork – Lynne is a practicing fine art printmaker as well as an artist).
Below: "Lighthouse" lino print on display at Trattles and Geall in Whitby, North Yorkshire, UK. One of a collection of prints inspired by local seascapes and landscapes.
As with any skilled activity, there are a myriad variations on the process described above. These variations produce different types of original prints (Etching, collagraph, woodcut, linocut and others). However, the description above explains what is distinctive about all types of original printmaking.
About Lynne's original prints
Lynne has been working with relief, or block, printing – a very traditional method of making fine art prints that, nevertheless, can be approached with a contemporary eye.
Block printing is a way of making original prints that was developed long before computers and cameras existed. Lynne often refers to her work as "push-button and switch free". While her printing press is mechanical, it is hand operated, and though manufactured only recently, it is a technology invented around the 1700's. There is no electrical plug attached, no 'on/off' switch – no walking away from the process.
Printing a maximum of 50 in an 'edition', as it is called, Lynne usually keeps her editions much smaller: 30, 25 or less so they are very 'limited' indeed. She allows only one artist's proof per edition, and then only if the proof is worthwhile. Lynne adheres strictly to good practice by ensuring the plates cannot be used to produce any more prints. If your print is numbered one of only 25, then there will only ever be 25… there may be less as time goes on with prints getting damaged or lost by their owners – there will never be more.