Howard Phipps

The Dorset Coast

The Dorset Coast: from Chesil Beach to the Isle of Purbeck.

Living in south west Wiltshire I am frequently drawn to neighbouring Dorset to walk some of the paths along its geologically varied coastline. I like to draw or paint on location, and I subsequently develop a number of my observations into wood engravings or linocuts. Both are methods of making relief prints, the former being a very English art form developed by Thomas Bewick in the 18th Century, where the engraving is made on highly polished end grain boxwood, which on completion is inked with a roller and printed by hand, in my case using an Albion Press made in 1862. Continue reading “The Dorset Coast”

Ox Drove

I seem always to have been drawn to trees as a motif in the landscape, possibly because of their strong architectural forms. There are parallels as I am also interested in interior space, and as with interlinking rooms I find receding pathways compelling in the way the eye is taken through the picture plane. Continue reading “Ox Drove”

Eggardon

During the last few years I have become increasingly interested in certain distinctive downland hills such as Melbury Beacon, and hill forts such as Hambledon Hill and Winkelbury Hillfort. These either in Dorset or Wiltshire where the short turf on the chalk helps in defining their underlying structure, and where these hills often rise quite steeply from their surrounding valleys. I am also interested in the way artists often get involved with a subject over time, as I frequently return to a theme again and again. Witness Paul Nash for instance and his preoccupation with the two hills at Wittenham Clumps. Continue reading “Eggardon”