Summer

A Mokuhanga print hand printed with a baren on 145 gsm Japanese Kitaro Torinoko Atsukuchi ( 70% Pulp and 30% Mitsumata) washi float mounted on white conservation board with kozo hinges.

Edition size: 10

Image size: 165 x 120 mm approx.

Mount: 300 x 210 mm

Price: £50

This traditional Japanese water based wood block print was created with four blocks, four colours, nori (rice starch paste) and 6 passes of pigment.

The print was created whilst sailing around the beautiful but wild island of Eire. It continues the simple registration process developed for my previous ‘Spring‘ mokuhanga print, which allows me to create a print in a compact space with a minimal amount of equipment as the blocks can be small as they don’t have the larger area required for kento registration marks and also I don’t require a press. I used washi that I had brought back from Echizen last year and it was interesting to compare it with the hankusa washi used in ‘Spring’. It is whiter in colour and has a softer feel which produced a lovely embossed finish from the rippling waves block quite readily.

We had just had an amazing few weeks of glorious blue skies and calm (ish) seas sailing in the Scilly Isles and then on to the south coast of Eire. The leaves on the trees, grass and fern covered hills shined fresh green under a bright sun. Ironically, as I only find time to print when we are storm bound at anchor or in a marina, this print was created whilst at anchor off Sherkin Island in the south-west Eire, under rather stormy grey skies and with the boat being buffeted by strong winds and a little of the Atlantic swell which can creep into the edges of Baltimore Harbour!

I have also continued the theme of leaving a square of washi unprinted to highlight its natural beauty. This is a memory of the square of semi opaque washi often used in the fusuma (traditional sliding door) of a closet in Japan.

October 2025