jock young ― pared-back prints

Acclaimed painter Jock Young reveals a pared-back look with his striking linocut prints.

Gouache and oils of a still life, or boats bobbing on the water, may be synonymous with Jock’s work, but along the way he has always experimented with linocut as part of the artistic process.

“My art is all about distilling the elements of a landscape, and linocuts are the perfect way to achieve that,” he says. “They offer a reduced version of reality and have a certain roughness about them which appeals to me because I like working in broad shapes.”

His offerings in Handmark’s Works on Paper exhibition are testament to this. Jock uses the rough-hewn strokes of linocut to bring the sitting room of a Cradle Mountain hut to life.

Jock began experimenting with linocut back in the early 80’s after being inspired by the prints of acclaimed Tasmanian artist Kit Hiller. Since then he often produces both linocuts and paintings of the same subject.

“I have turned linocuts into paintings. But mostly I use paintings as a subject for linocuts,” Jock tells us. “It takes a long time for me to produce a composition that I am happy with, and so once I have done a painting it is really interesting to explore it a little bit further in the medium of linocut.”