This is my reduction lino print called ‘Dragon under Oxford’. Reduction printing is a process where you carve and reprint the same block to make the layers, so creating a limited edition print. There are 11 of these, and there will be no more.

I drew the view from Boars hill near my house- that’s the view Matthew Arnold wrote the dreaming spires about. I annoyed my child by editing out all the cranes from the view. There are a lot more cranes in Oxford that in Matthew Arnold’s time I’m sure.

I used Cranfield oil based inks in shades of violet. The dragon is a deep violet colour.

Size: The paper is Fabriano Rosapina 285gsm printmaking paper in ivory for a vintage feel. Size is hand cut to approximately 26x18 cm (7.08x10.24 inches). Some prints may have a watermark on the reverse. No frames for this one.

You’re probably wondering why there is a dragon under Oxford. The Mabinogion mentions there being a dragon under Oxford, in fact, two, because another one came along and caused a fight. They both ended up being turned into pigs which is a bit unfair to the original dragon, he didn’t start it after all. Maybe he unpigged himself and came back home, but there is a strong connection with dragons here, for example, dragon hill where St George brutally murdered a dragon is in Oxfordshire.

A high dragon population makes sense if you think about it, Tolkien and Lewis Carroll were getting their ideas from somewhere, and that somewhere was probably under Oxford, and dragon shaped.

My prints are hand registered by eye and unlike computer generated images are subject to slight variations that make each a unique piece of art.