Year after year, snowdrops continue to create a spectacle in nature.

Their delicacy at a time of year when the weather can be at it's most harsh, is magical.

So, I spent a lovely few hours just messing about, celebrating this most gentle of flowers.

I used lovely new oil pastels...

... returned to relief printing & created a simple, graphic postcard design.

and messed about with oil based inks creating some drypoint etchings.

Drypoint is a process where you scratch into a surface & create a print from it.

Copper plates used to be used, but these days, I use acetate.

It creates a monoprint, where you really only get one print each time, so it's quite a slow process, but that's what I like about it. It's impossible to rush.

The lines & marks acheived by using this technique, for me, cannot be achieved any other way. I love how fine the lines can be, in contrast to the swooshing, painterly brushstrokes of the ink.

And in the print below, I added a tiny touch of delicate watercolour to pick out some details.

I hope you have some snowdrops near you that you can marvel at.

xx