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4 medium. Flight first came across the use of lino in printmaking though Professor Franz Cižek, an Austrian teacher who encouraged his young pupils to make linocuts in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century. Exhibitions of his students' work were shown in London and were almost certainly seen by Flight who wrote, 'Professor Cižek, of Vienna, seems to have been the first European of any standing to use lino-colour printing in what one might call a European way; this in his art classes which he directs so wonderfully and with such apparent success.' 2 Flight's revolutionary method abandoned the key plate as he told his students, 'A key block is not essential; two, three or four blocks of almost equal detail can be used and strength obtained where necessary by superimposing one colour over another to gain the required depth of tone.' 3 This method allowed the image to be gradually built up and with careful planning and inking, several colours, not just the one from each block could be created. The order of the printing of the blocks determined the colours of the final impression as, 'red over blue over yellow giving a different result to blue over red over yellow or yellow over blue over red, and so forth.' 4 Flight also recommended using thin translucent Japanese tissue paper to use with printing inks and in some cases a thinned oil paint. This was an essential component in the making of these linocuts and is what gives them the vivid colour and luminosity as the inks or paint dried on the surface of the paper and did not get absorbed into it. Every impression is slightly different because each was printed entirely by hand without the aid of a printing press, and because they were done at different times it gave each impression a uniqueness rather than the uniformity of a lithograph or etching; sometimes the colour of images from the same edition differed and in some cases the prints have a different feel because the artist experimented intentionally with varied pressure to transfer the ink to the paper. Sybil Andrews, who emigrated to Canada in 1947, completed many of her editions there and are on different papers to the thin oriental papers she bought from T N Lawrence's near Fleet Street in London. Initially, designs were done on tracing paper which were then lightly oiled and adhered to the lino block. Pressure was applied to the design with a blunt pointed instrument that transferred the design to the lino itself thereby marking the area on the block to be cut away. The editions were printed more or less on demand for exhibitions in the UK and abroad. For example Ethel Spowers would write to Flight having secured a show in Melbourne; in turn Flight would inform the rest of the 2. Claude Flight Lino-Cuts published by John Lane, The Bodley Head, London (revised edition 1948) p16 3. Flight Lino Cuts p28 4. Ibid p27 Sybil Andrews in her studio. 1980's