Goen II
Goen II - Watercolour woodblock (Mokuhanga) print on Japanese hand made 100% kozo washi made in the Autumn of 2026 with sumi ink, indigo, malachite, cinnabar, ochre, mica, copper, gold, verdigris pigments, 5 passes, 1 block, edition of 8, 60 x 45 cm, £444.
Goen II is inspired by the planetary parade that was visible in the winter night sky of 2025. I witnessed seven planets alongside the moon one January evening gazing out to the Northumbrian moors. It was a breath-taking sight, as an arch of Mars, Uranus, Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn, Mercury, the moon and Venus aligned from east to west in the inky sky. To mark this rare celestial event, I re-created the small edition of Goen with a larger version in Goen II, hand-embellished with earth and mineral pigments on a ground of sumi and indigo ink on hand made washi paper.
Goen is a Japanese concept referring to a fateful connection between people, things of places, suggesting that encounters are the result of invisible interconnected threads. This print is an homage to Kate MacDonagh's Borderless print of 2020 that she created for the Mokuhanga Sisters Borderless scroll artist's book.