This new, ongoing series of landscapes employs and variously combines – linocut, woodblock, etching, embossing and one-off Chine-collé prints, and utilises as its point of reference cloud imagery. To some degree Couchman is paralleling cloud motifs, which she has observed in temples, public architecture and large courtyard homes, (siheyuan) across China. This traditional subject, being usually depicted in stone or wood, materials that are in acute contrast to the ethereality of actual clouds. This mirrors the printmaking process where the cloud is carved in lino or wood or etched in copper.

The inadvertent starting point for these works was Couchman noticing, as the plane in which she was travelling descended towards the as yet unrevealed Beijing metropolis, a thin layer of bright yellow cloud, delineating a relatively fine line of material through which the aircraft quickly passed. From the ground nothing of this curious narrow band was visible, only a clear blue sky.

There is some irony here in the application of the English expression ‘every cloud has a silver lining’, which suggests that everything bad has its positive, if perhaps at first hidden, aspect. In the present case the matter is reversed, the clear blue of the sky being discreetly penetrated by an invisible layer of tangerine haze. It is difficult to see the ‘silver lining’ in this ominous yellow vision.

Couchman’s depictions of clouds are somewhat stylized, presenting age-old Chinese imagery in a modern form that owes much to the technical devices and conventions employed in western comics. Her pairing of Chinese wood and stone clouds with references to 20th century cartoons and design have allowed for a fantasised depiction of a grey and yellow cityscape.

云系列，黄里衬

这个系列的风景作品是于2010年期间制作的，作品以云的图案为参照，采用并结合了多样技术，包括浮雕、木板印刷、蚀刻、压花以及一次性裱贴。从某种程度上来说，Couchman的经历与云的主题是并行的，她在中国的寺庙中、公共建筑物及大型四合院里到处可见这一图案。这一传统主题常被描刻在石头或木材上，让云彩本身的轻盈飘逸感与石头或木材之类的硬质材料形成鲜明的反差对比。这类似于版画复制的过程，即将云的图案刻入版画或木材上，或是蚀刻到铜上。Couchman将这些参照同20世纪卡通画及设计相搭配，营造出一种幻想中灰黄色调的都市风景。

这些作品起源于Couchman当年前往北京的经历，当飞机下降到还未能看到北京都市的位置时，她注意到机身经过的那一片亮黄色的薄云层。而从地面往上，却一点儿也看不到这层奇特的窄带，只是一片清澈的蓝天而已。