I first spotted the rooftops and towers of Aston Hall while driving into Birmingham on the Aston expressway. Intrigued, I made a visit and was taken by this oasis within a busy part of Birmingham. This print was the first one where I experimented with starting with dark backgrounds and adding lighter opaque layers over the top. It is a technique that I have subsequently returned to and refined many times. I usually begin with dark colours in Akua water based inks and build up the opaque lighter colours using linseed oil based relief inks. This reminds me a little of painting a ground on a canvas before you start. The building is part of the Birmingham Museums Trust and I’m hoping to create a view looking through one of their beautiful windows, back towards the centre of Brum.