This piece of squirrel art is inspired by the red squirrels which live locally, and forms part of my wildlife print collection. As a wildlife artist, I could resist portraying these squirrels gathering nuts.

In the woods nearby you see lots of red squirrels. The best time to see them is in Autumn, early in the morning when the sun is just coming up. You see them scampering about the ground seeking a place to cache their food. The forest floor is littered with the remains of their chewed up pine cones.

The printed area is 17 x 18cm and the paper is 29cm x 38cm. It is printed in black oil based ink onto beautifully smooth white Japanese Simili paper. As you can see, I have used a variety of different sized tools to create the fine texture of the squirrel’s fur and the sweep of the tail, contrasting with the rugged bark of the tree branch. It is one of 12 designs from my Scottish Wildlife Calendar.

All of my linocut prints turn out slightly differently – depending on where the linocut is placed on the paper, how much ink is rolled on, and how much pressure is used to transfer the ink from the linocut onto the paper. This is one of an edition of 100 prints, and each print is number, titled and signed, all in pencil.