Clontarf

Clontarf is a coastal suburb on the northern shore of Dublin Bay, looking south across the water to the Wicklow Mountains and east to the Howth peninsula. The print's linocut medium marks a departure from Early's intaglio practice: relief-cut from a linoleum block and printed on the press, linocut produces flat fields of solid colour and crisp, bold cut edges in place of the graduated tones of aquatint or the linear filigree of etching. The subject likely centres on Clontarf's seafront — the promenade, the Bull Wall causeway, or the long view toward the Baily Lighthouse on Howth, a structure that recurs across Early's lighthouse subjects. The 2023 date places it among her recent work, where the tonal economy of relief printing pares back the coastal scene to silhouette and contour. Within her broader catalogue, Clontarf joins the Dublin Bay subjects (Tall Chimneys, lighthouse studies) that map the city's tidal edge.