'Fount'

 Screen print edition

Tuesday May 10th at 5pm GMT

 

Coinciding with the release of Stephen Ellcock’s new book of marvels, England On Fire, upon the cover of which Fount appears.

 

  Fount was part of my A Week Of Twelve Days box set, put together last year using only elements from engravings of Gustave Doré’s work.

Someone asked me at a conversation between Stephen and Mat Osman the other night who the figure was and asked if it was Herne the Hunter. The easy answer was yes, sort of, but not really. These things are better left open I think.

I do have a vivid memory as a kid of Herne the Hunter appearing in the 1980s Robin of Sherwood TV show, walking out of the mists of the forest wearing a huge antlered stag’s head.  It had quite a big impact on me that made my mind tingle.

A couple of months ago I slept out in some woods and sat up late with a fire, and was thinking about this picture a bit and how it’s also sort of a fantasy/archetypal version of how I feel when I do such things.

Looking into a little fire and listening to owls and other foresty beasts and the hush in between the sounds, watching the stars and moon slowly turning and peering down through the trees, with the night getting cold and deep, I often feel I’m gulping from an ancient fount that I for one thirst after.
 

🔥

 

You can buy England On Fire from your local bookshop or online via uk.bookshop.org, Watkins Publishing or the other usual internet places.