"Alfred Brown: A Life in Pictures" (the working title) is being engraved on plastic blocks about 9 ½ x 6”. It follows its protagonist from the age of 7 in the late 1940s to his death around the present day. It is all story-boarded out but not drawn up in pages yet. There will be between 1 and 4 images (usually 2) on each block, allowing variety of pace. Neil expects to engrave around 400 blocks with 750 images on them. He does not know how long it will take. He has to try to make a living meanwhile. Amazingly, he finds time to make other prints as well. Alfred Brown explores the wider ideas of values and what we consider to be a useful and productive life. It is an attempt to understand what we are all doing, running around. There are no answers provided, just description. Neil himself, having ‘run around’ the whole gamut of modern technologies, has realised that a passionate concern with narrative lies at the heart of what he wants to do and that the engraver’s marks are the best means of doing it." Excerpt written by Simon Brett for the exhibition: Bewick’s Legacy: Six Contemporary British Wood Engravers
Started in 2008, "Alfred Brown: A Life in Pictures" is a novel without words based on the fictional life of Alfred Brown. The story unfolds through hundreds of engraved images from childhood to adulthood, old age and death scene. Due to the large scale of this work, I aim to produce and publish this book in three volumes. A selection of the engravings I have completed so far ...
Engraved prints by Neil Bousfield
Image size(mm) 150w x 240h
