I have been making prints of Thames views for some time and more recently became drawn to quays and ships’ moorings. I enjoy the architectural, sometimes almost abstract shapes they make, and their strength but also slight dilapidation.

This print is one of a number of recent prints exploring and exploiting the expressive potential of the printmaking technique known as carborundum relief printing.  This was developed by the French American artist Henri Goetz (1909 – 1989) in the 1960s who introduced it to a number of other artists notably Joan Miro.  Miro wrote to Goetz saying ‘the results are fascinating and very beautiful. The artist can express himself with more richness and freedom…which gives a beautiful substance and a more powerful line’. 

I discovered, almost by accident, these “dolphins” – freestanding, powerful moorings that appear all along the Thames. I spotted my first one by the HMS Belfast and was hooked. No-one seems to know the origin of their name except that it is almost certainly not connected to the marine mammal.