Original hand-printed aquatint etching on Somerset paper
Print Size: 180mm x 120mm
Mount Aperture Size: 220mm x 160mm
External Mount Size: 355mm x 305mm (14x12)
No. of prints in edition: 30
 
I always imagine that the popular myths that have long breathed life into the magical landscape of the Uffington White Horse must occur at night – the mare and her invisible foal coming down to the Manger to graze, or the once in a hundred year occurrence when the horse leaps across the sky to be reshod at nearby Waylands Smithy.
 
Looking towards the hill from the village of Uffington, the Orion constellation hangs over this horizon in the winter sky; the figure of the hunter seems to watch over the ancient chalk figure on the slope below. On a clear moonless night the welcome darkness above the North Wessex Downs reveals the ethereal glow of the Milky Way, a luminous swathe across the heavens.
 
And I wonder if the Horse and Orion could talk to each other, what might they have to say? What human events have they quietly observed together over the last three millenia?
 
This print was made for the Oxford Printmakers Co-operative "Myths and Legends" exhibition. The first 12 of the edition are donated to the workshop, and in return each printer receives a mystery box of ten prints.