This post begins a profile of another artistic activity that I have been active in for a few years now, namely the design and printing of limited run art postcards. These are some of the early cards. More will be added in subsequent posts to this one e.g POSTCARD 2, 3 etcetera. I hand-printed these postcards that were created from a combination of drawing and printmaking. I would make random, numbered editions of say 8, 19 or 33. A print run greater than 50 was rare. The total would be determined by the amount of blank cards I had and the available time for production. Once I finished a session that meant the end of that particular batch as I would not repeat the design. Cards in an edition are all original prints, or monoprints, so-called by being similar in design but with no exact duplicates.

The following three postcards show variations produced in one edition: (1) the overlaid pink patch is in a different position on each card and its shape and strength of colour vary; (2) the dragon stamp(the small curvy line) is in almost the same position on two cards but not the third and its legs seem absent in two impressions; (3) the large black and yellow mass varies in colour and texture from card to card; (4) the Post Office marking is at the top, bottom or missing; (5) my MH signature seal, whilst generally in the same position, is actually upside down on two of the cards…a creative accident!

Beer drinking, on most occasions  a bottle of stout, marked the end of an edition to celebrate completion. This was usually late in the afternoon as I never seemed to print in the mornings. After a few years I supplemented this hand-made approach with digital printing, making copies from the scanned original. But then I eventually abandoned that and returned to the hand-made process.

UPDATE OCTOBER 12, 2015: A selection of these art postcards have been displayed in exhibitions over the past few years, the first in 2007 titled Abstract Nos. 1-11 at the DAB LAB Gallery in the courtyard of the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building of the University of Technology, Sydney.

UPDATE NOVEMBER 6, 2015: At Hondarake Full of Books in 2012 the launch of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper was accompanied by a mini exhibition of 33 0f my art postcards from the Abstract, Landscape and Seasons series. 

Fukushima Kids 2013 Auction, Japan: 10 of my postcards, each print a monoprint and thus unique. Reverse side signed and dated plus has artist’s stamp. Cards can be kept or mailed. These postcards were made on machine made cardboard following the Japanese sosaku hanga method of printmaking.