Girls Lino Print

I have found inspiration for this project in many areas because of my intensive research, one of these has been 'The British Empire from Photographs;India' by John Fabb. This Lino cut works in to the theme of women's role in society in India which I have been interested in because of Kerala's great education system for girls. I mainly wanted to focus on this image because of the jewelry and detail within it; as I explore mark making and pattern through the process of lino printing.

I have been heavily influenced by my visit to see the Bejewelled exhibition at the V&A. My work already had a focus on detail but on seeing the amazing jewelers work, historically and modern day, the importance and brilliance of detail in the craft fed into how I wanted to create and put care into my Lino cuts. 

In my previous Lino cuts there had been detail but now I have focused even more in the detail of line work and the choice of delicate surface strokes versus the heavy deep cuts. On my previous cuts it was mainly deeper mark making but softer and thinner marks work really well for textures like walls and tree leaves as I have been experimenting on with my Temple Lino cut, and for the hair and jewelry marks on this Lino cut of the two Nautch girls.

Exploring detail with Lino cut; these two Nautch girls were inspired by a photograph from 1870 India. These were the dancing girls whose task it was to please a man, know how to talk, how to make him feel at ease, and teach boys the art of sex. They were usually attached to the court, and travelled all over India.