04 Dec 2005
Mr. Bsag and I went to the exhibition of wood engravings at the RBSA on Saturday---sadly, it's finished now, otherwise I'd recommend a visit if you're in the area. I love woodcuts, linocuts and wood engravings. As far as I understand it, wood engravers use hard wood which enables them to make incredibly fine marks. Certainly, many of the prints on show where beautifully detailed and dense. Even the tiniest of the prints must represent hours of painstaking, delicate work.
I find it difficult to explain what I like so much about wood engravings. Usually, I'm a sucker for colour, and most engravings are just printed in black (though some may be hand tinted). It must be something about the magic of creating such a detailed, textured image out of a block of smooth wood that I find interesting. Wood engraving was a bit of a dying art, but it seems to have had a bit of a resurgence recently, which I think is great news.