Robin?

Friday 5th February 2021

I listened to a talk by James Rebanks a few nights ago. He is a sheep farmer from Cumbria who farms as sustainably as he can. BBC Sounds - English Pastoral by James Rebanks - Available Episodes This is a few episodes from his book English Pastoral - I really enjoyed them, he obviously loves his farm and his family and is doing what he can to pass it on to the next generation in a better state than he started with it. The reality is that it is almost impossible to farm profitably in the Uk, he receives subsidies from the government, has school visits etc and also writes books in order to have enough money to do what he thinks is the right thing for the farm.

Its Friday today so back to some drawing - actually I tried my first linocut today - may have been overambitious to try a bird first but I am keeping to the theme and trying out a few things!

Its an interesting process - everything is back to front and there is definitely a skill to the tools that I dont have yet! There is also a technique to rolling the ink - I dont have that yet either! In fact I think its not a bad first attempt and I learnt a lot - will definitely have another go - I do wish that I could do this with mum next to me - she is an expert and I could learn much more quickly with her - bring on an end to lockdown!