"I chose to work in this comparatively simple technique, not only because of a long standing admiration for the work of the Sydney relief printmakers of the 1930's and 1940's who had followed the modern European revival of this ancient method of coloured prints but also, I suppose, as a reaction to the technical preoccupations which pervaded printmaking during the 1970's, both here and overseas" Leslie van der Sluys was born in Melbourne in 1939. His general art training was undertaken at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology with, among others, Tate Adams, and later at the Melbourne State College. He also had a BA (Art History and Classical Studies) from the University of Melbourne. He has been making linocuts of Australian floral and faunal subjects since he was at high school, where he was introduced to the genre by Sydney relief printmaker, Florence Higgs, who through the example of her own work introduced him to the rich formal and decorative potential of the Australian flora. After an informal apprenticeship as a landscape painter in both London and Melbourne with John Perceval during the 1960's, he taught art in secondary schools while pursuing plein air landscape painting around Heidelberg and the Yarra Valley at weekends. In 1980 he returned to his former interest in linocut and the following year became a full-time printmaker, employing his earlier experience as a watercolourist in the hand colouring of his single block prints. Although it is more painstakingly laborious, he prefers this process to the multiple-block, printed colour method because of its greater luminosity. It allows more opportunity for the subtle modulation of tone and hue. Recent Exhibitions 1987 Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney 1989 State Library of Queensland Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney Ipswich Regional Art Gallery, QLD 1990 Australian Galleries, Melbourne 1993 Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney 1994 Chapman Gallery, Canberra Cintra Galleries, Brisbane 1996 Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney Cintra Galleries Brisbane 1997 Despard Gallery, Hobart Framed Gallery, Darwin 1998 Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney 1999 Despard Gallery, Hobart Hurnal's Gallery, Melbourne 2000 Collins Street Gallery, Melbourne Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane Collections Holmes a Court Collection, Perth Elton John Collection, UK Lord Harewod Collection, UK Melbourne University La Trobe University, Melbourne Parliament House Offices, Sydney Ibis Hotel, Sydney Westmead Hospital, Sydney Accor Asian Pacific Family Law Courts Canberra New Parliament House, Canberra Bribane City Hall Art Gallery Commonwealth Artbank CRA Qantas IBM Sydney Griffith University, Brisbane

A selection of hand coloured Linocuts from Leslie van der Sluys These are genuine, limited edition, original prints* Prices range from $195 - $600 for unframed prints Click on image to enlarge
Linocut by Leslie van der Sluys "Magnificent Riflebirds" 67 x 37 cm	Linocut by Leslie van der Sluys "Red Tailed Black Cockatoos & Mari Gum" 61 x 48 cm
Linocut by Leslie van der Sluys "Glossy Black Cockatoo in Casurina" 45 x 65 cm	Linocut by Leslie van der Sluys "Lornas Rainbow Lorikeets" 30 x 30 cm
Linocut by Leslie van der Sluys "Blue Winged Kookaburra" 40 x 30 cm	Linocut by Leslie van der Sluys "Darter and Blue Lotus" 40 x 31 cm
Linocut by Leslie van der Sluys "Australian Pelican" 57 x 43 cm
LESLIE VAN DER SLUYS HAND COLOURED LINOCUTS How the Prints are made Linocuts are relief prints. They are so called because, to make them, part of the surface of the linolum (or wood) is carved to leave only the desired image standing in relief to take the ink. By contrast, in etching, the design is merely incised into the surface and the ink sits below in the resulting grooves. This is an intaglio method. The production of these linocut relief prints combines the use of a mechanical device with a purely manual process. The key block is cut from a special linolum. The design is then printed, under pressure, in black oil based ink on French Velin Arches handmade rag paper by means of hand-operated etching press. After an initial proofing, the edition proper is begun, each impression being pulled individually. After several days when they are dry enough, the impressions are individually coloured by hand with the artist's quality English watercolours. When the edition is complete (sub-standard impressions having been discarded along the way) the linolum blocks are defaced to prevent further use. This makes it a limited edition. Each impression is signed and numbered. Hand-coloured relief prints have been made in Europe since the invention of printing itself. With the development of mechanical colour printing processes in the nineteenth century, however, general use of this mixed-process technique declined until it was revived by artists in the early twentieth century Modernist European artists who hand-coloured their relief prints include Kandinsky, Nolde, Kokoschka, Heckel, von Zulow and Beckmann. The two most prominent artists responsible for its introduction to Australia during the 1920s and 30s were Thea Proctor and Margaret Preston. Prestons knowledge of Japanese art may also have influenced her use of this technique since she would have been aware of the fact that works of early Japanese wood-block print masters were coloured by hand before the invention of multiple-block colour printing in that country. Because of inevitable variations in inking and pressure, each impression, or individual print, in an edition of prints is slightly different. The further application of watercolour enhances this individuality. In fact each piece becomes a painting as well as a print, with its own unique identity. *A note on 'prints' The term 'print' is often used in the wider art market for photographic reproductions of paintings, drawings, or original prints. These are sometimes even numbered in signed 'limited' editions. In the opinion of many, this is a fraudulent practice. Such pictures are NOT original prints in the fully authentic sense. As artifacts they are, in fact, virtually worthless despite the high prices often asked for them. By contrast, these linocut prints are designed by the artist as an original print: the block is actually cut by the artist, printed by him and hand-coloured by him. In other words, the artist himself has a direct 'hands-on' association with each print from the beginning through to the end of the entire process. These are genuine, limited edition, original prints.