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InspirationIllustration

Dan Howden's linocut prints of architecture and everyday scenes look like paintings

York-based artist and printmaker Dan Howden has spent the last seven years carving a niche for himself within printmaking and has developed a layer-heavy approach to linocut that gives his prints a very painterly feel.

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Dan Howden's linocut print of an urban street scene with shop signs and a red car, with the golden Parthenon visible in the distance on the right

In 2016, Dan was awarded the Anthony Dawson Young Printmaker of the Year award in London and recently received his MA in Illustration from Manchester School of Art.

Drawn to architectural scenes and the atmospheres they posses as well as the homogeneity in everyday life, Dan recently produced a series of linocut prints entitled Portacabin Series. "It responds to a trip I took to Athens earlier this year and the volume of portacabins that were present at the site of the Parthenon," he explains. "I found the juxtaposition of temporary, throw-away architecture and ancient temple rather amusing and interesting at the same time."

He adds: "I have spent the past four or five years devising and refining my own approach to the traditional print process, one that incorporates many registrations and gives a somewhat painterly outcome. I use a jigsaw method, cutting up the slab of linoleum into pieces and treating each as an individual linocut, placing them back together on the paper to gradually create an image."

A linocut print depicting an arched colonnade with geometric patterning, metal railings and a parking sign beneath a starry night sky
A layered linocut print depicting an Athens street scene with ivy-covered pillars, modernist portacabin buildings, and classical architecture visible in the background
Brick townhouses with red tiled roofs in the foreground frame two grand Gothic cathedral towers in pale yellow stone against a blue sky
Yellow forklift against a snowy mountainous landscape in a linocut print with layered blue and white tones
Modern portacabin structure with railway tracks and scattered debris in foreground, ancient Greek temple with classical columns visible in background beneath clear blue sky
A linocut print depicting the Parthenon's ancient columns in cream and blue tones alongside a modern portacabin with grey-green windows and an orange trim, with building materials in the foreground
Yellow forklift on a construction site with portacabins and ancient Athens cityscape with mountains visible in the background, a linocut print by Dan Howden
Night-time architectural scene with illuminated portacabin featuring large windows, black railings and starry sky above, from Dan Howden's linocut print series
Detail of a linocut print showing textured white rocks with yellow-green moss and patterned vegetation, demonstrating layered registration technique
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