Today’s featured wood engraving is a ‘Great Spotted Woodpecker’ by Ian Stephens. It first appeared in Issue 51 of Slightly Foxed, where we featured a series of birds engraved by Ian.
About the contributor
Ian Stephens was born in North Buckinghamshire in 1940. He studied illustration and lettering at Northampton School of Art and started engraving immediately on leaving. He has worked as an art teacher, a graphic designer and illustrator. His main concern is landscape and its form, uses and denizens. He says ‘I try not to let the medium or process get in the way. Though I enjoy engraving and printing wood blocks immensely, it is only the medium through which I choose to explore my ideas; a secondary rather than a primary consideration’. He is now semi-retired but produces drawings for The Jackdaw magazine and is still engraving.