Featured Printmakers
This Spring we’re celebrating the diversity of ideas, themes and techniques encompassed by the burgeoning artform of printmaking.
Our exhibition The Art of Printmaking showcased the abundant talents of printmakers working in the region. Although now closed, you can enjoy here a flavour of the great range of work featured.
“Dynamic and democratic, the world of printmaking now includes the billboard and the badge, the masterpiece and the multiple, the priceless and the give-away. Prints are a vital and vibrant link between the museum and the marketplace, the elite and the everyday.”
V&A – Printmaking in the 21st century
Ken Ager
Homage to H. II, £85
carborundum print
I enjoy printmaking as an alternative way of working to the often time-consuming textiles construction methods that usually occupy me. In contrast to the building up of colours, surfaces and textures gradually, the process of making a print with the impression of inked surface on paper in one almost spontaneous action has great appeal for its directness. Successful final prints record and may somehow concentrate or condense the time spent on choices of source, scale, form, texture and colours into a single moment of impact between plate and paper.
Julie Arnall
Sunflower II, £156
drypoint & monoprint
The tactile quality of intaglio printmaking techniques including drypoint and collograph provide a link to the senses, as the printed lines create a physical impression in the paper. The fine detail of a line draws in the viewer and causes a moment to pause and reflect.
Glynnis Bainbridge
Split, £55
drypoint etching
I am a mark maker in a variety of mediums. Printmaking is a great way to use many different methods to further my work and experiences.
Geoff Bennett
Self-isolation, £60
lino cut
I like simple themes & simple materials (linocut, water-based inks, lining paper) – to create pictures reminiscent of medieval woodcuts.
Liz Boast
Minotaur, £150
reduction lino print
These are from a series of prints based on J L Borges’ ‘Book of Imaginary Beings’. They are reduction linocuts with some chine-colle on Japanese paper. I was inspired by the Cutting Edge Modern British Printmaking exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, featuring Anglo-Japanese artists including Claude Flight and Sybil Andrews.
Vanessa Bryson
Brunel Chimney
reduction linocut
With lino cut reduction print you take a risk that as you remove different layers you will cut away something important. It also means that results can be surprising, and many times much more interesting than those planned. I like to take natural objects, including landscapes, and render them to their basic elements. I also like to experiment with different textures and paper colours in order to get the effect I want.
Keeda Cowley
£45
linoprint & gold leaf
Wanting to hone in my own style, I have been studying the human form, with a current focus on the female form. Approaching the preciseness and complexity of the female form, using simple techniques and one-line sketching, painting and printing. These lino prints have been cut, and hand-printed without a press, in my home. Creating differences in the colour and texture of each print, making each one individual. Naming each design after a Norse Goddess to invoke the power and Beauty the female form embodies.
Fiona Demetriou
Great Crested Grebe
lino cut
I like to make prints of birds, animals or plants seen in my garden or while out walking. Using photographs or illustrations as a starting point, my favourite print methods are lino cut and dry point etching.
Michael Evans
The Mighty Elephant Walks on his Toes, £275
lino cut
Lino cuts have an authority because the shapes make a very sharply defined image. The layering of several blocks makes for a particular kind of space or depth, very different from conventional perspective.
June Faulkner
Puddingstone 1, £120
devore textiles
When creating devore textile designs using silk viscose satin fabric I use chemicals with the screen printing process and photographic screens or stencils. This etches away the viscose to leave the sheer silk, thus creating the image. The fabric is then dyed (and sometimes also discharged) to add the colour element to my pieces of work. I often use my photographs as the inspiration for my work and designs.
Nina Federley
Near the Arctic Circle, £125
monotype
I work using traditional printmaking techniques, mainly etching and monotype. As with most artists, my life experiences are mirrored in my work; my images are narratives, which are created from hidden memories, feelings, and senses where the boundaries between different realities are blurred.
Shirley Gordon-Mandefield
Wrapped – Sunset, £45
lino cut
For this series I have used a combination of drawing and tracing before transferring to linoleum to provide an image to cut ready for print. Multiple repetitions and experiments with colour and the thickness of paint have resulted in a variety of finished prints. By utilising tracing paper to create a mask on the linoleum, I was able to create multiple layers and alternative details present on the face and head wrapping. The chosen image reflects my cultural interests and is appropriate for future printing on textiles for dressmaking and furnishings.
Marian Hall
Cracked Earth – Brown, £145
photopolymer plate on paper
I explore design ideas in my sketchbook, usually by collaging painted papers. In the Cracked Earth series, I started by creating a collage which I manipulated and photographed at close range. One of the resulting photographs was used to create a photo polymer print plate. I have enjoyed exploring different colour ways and orientations with this series of work.
Laurence Hartley
Cley Marshes, Norfolk I, £80
mixed media
A printmaker with a passion for travel, I produce small editions of hand-pulled prints, which often combine collograph, monoprint and drypoint processes. I am inspired by wide geographical expanses where land and sky meet and the effect of light on the relief is forever re-writing the landscape.
Sherrie-Leigh Jones
Faint Outlines on the Eastern Horizon, £165 (unframed £125)
cellulose transfer print
Sherrie-Leigh Jones is an artist/printmaker creating fictitious places and remodelling existing landscapes through a process of collaging her own photographs, paintings, found imagery and printmaking techniques to make limited edition prints and originals. Drawing inspiration from nature, travel, the sublime and science fiction, she is interested in creating a journey through vast, imagined landscapes, exploring the uncanny often found in places of natural phenomena and wonder, endless woodlands and abandoned land. Depicting landscapes that explore the ideas of travel, ever changing seasons and environments, juxtaposing the real and fantastical, lush vegetation and mountainous formations exist to remodel previous environments.
Kim Major-George
Storm Echo, £195
collagraph with gold leaf & crackle
Collagraph hand-pulled printing is an exciting, very raw mark marking form of hand-pulled printing. The design is created and transferred to mountboard via tracing paper. Textured papers, polyfiller, carborundum, melted plastics, organic materials etc. are adhered to the surface. The plate is sealed and when dry, loaded with ink, burnished back, damp paper is laid on top and the plate is pulled through a traditional press. When the printed image is dry, I take the image on a further journey by applying delicate gold leaf applied in the traditional way (excess carefully collected) and crackle layers painted on top. When dry, these crackle layers have pure oil paint rubbed into the cracks and the excess is wiped away. Collagraph is an extraordinary form of hand pulled printing with so many different effects created using different materials adhered to the plate, different ways of inking up mounting, multiple plates into the single image and, in my case, hand embellishing.
Kim is the author of ‘Collagraph – a journey through texture’ & ‘All cracked up’
Rosita Matyniowna
Friesian Horse, £120
etching & aquatint
I have been enjoying exploring different approaches to print making over the last two years. I have been experimenting with drawing back into the wet inking plate to create tone and depth. I’ve found the wonderful animal images of Goya, Rembrandt and Leonardo da Vinci of particular interest.
Kirstin Ogilvie
Tree by the Harbour, £35
relief lino print
I find my inspiration in the natural world, and I love bringing the outside world inside through my printmaking. I am self-taught and specialise in relief printmaking. I focus mainly on linocut, but I am beginning to explore woodcut as a medium. I find great satisfaction in traditional techniques and the complete design-to-print process. The results are designs and prints with a unique style and a very human touch. My work is inspired by my interactions and experiences with nature, especially through my travels. I am fascinated by the energy of the sea, and the interface between the sea, land and sky, and I try to convey that sense of drama in my work. I find that monochrome relief printing is a powerful method to express and communicate the intricate shapes, textures and dynamics of natural forms, whether flora and fauna, geographical features, or the sea and clouds.
Jude O’Sullivan
Ellipse, £100
monoprint
I use a variety of printmaking techniques in my work. This is a set of recently created monoprints based on the free movement of ellipses and inspired by my love of pattern and the Constructivist and Bauhaus art movements. I like the unpredictability, immediacy and painterly quality of monoprints.
Charlotte Read
North Norfolk Coastal Path, Brancaster Overy Staithe, £114
lino print, collage
I’m interested in the stark contrast of black on white, dark and light. Negative spaces – the space between solid objects. Strong shapes. My approach to printmaking is traditional. The process starts with a drawing, which is developed into paintings and sketches. Then I explore the image through printmaking, which enlivens the creative process. The image can be transformed as it’s developed as a print. You see it differently, and a wealth of creative possibilities are opened.
Sometimes, I print over previous prints, some made using a silk screen or embellished with shinkokai paper or collage my prints.
Irene Robson
Holly & Norway Maple, £75
monoprint with relief printed acrylic plates
My approach to printmaking is always experimental. I love to combine methods and disciplines, and to push their boundaries. I take a lot of my inspiration from nature and my love of trees. I like to create complex layered images. I hope that my work is aesthetically pleasing. I want it to be subtle, to evoke thoughts and emotions, to excite and maybe to confuse.
Jeanie Sondheimer
Beneath the Layers, £60
collagraph
Primarily a painter, I have been experimenting with printmaking for the last year. Collagraph is one of my favourite types of printmaking as it allows me to explore textures and colours in a similar way to painting, but adds an element of surprise as you are never quite sure how each print will come out. In this way it also gives me freedom, and an opportunity to let go of the precise, to embrace the expressive nature of this medium. In the series “Beneath the Layers”, my plate was an abstract collection of different textures. I love how one plate can create such a variety of effects as the ink behaves in different ways with each technique and each print.
Amanda Towers
Influence of China, £200
monoprint
I studied at Loughborough College of Art and Design and have been teaching in Further Education for 25 years, I currently teach life drawing and printmaking at Courtyard Arts. Printmaking has been my passion, influenced by nature and architecture. I derive my ideas through drawing, photography and emotional responses to places visited. Colour is a key component throughout my work, I use it to encapsulate the mood and emotion I am trying to express.
Sally Tyrie
Still Some Way Off II, £270
photopolymer etching, monoprint, ink, stitch
I work predominantly with printmaking, photography and mixed media, preferring to select surface and media that makes connections with the theme and context. Method and meaning are often interconnected. Material and process also play a central role as a way to convey dialogue and meaning. My method of working involves some form of initial research and investigation. For instance, repeated visits to a location or historical research in a subject. It is important to me that visual and historical research underpin and inform the group of work. This work draws from investigation into landscapes where land and water exist as a fragile balance. In particular the Fenland landscape at Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire. Working with multi-layered mark making, primarily through printmaking, this work explores the glimpses, traces and alternative ways of seeing. An alternative interpretation and reflection on a unique and fragile environment. I work from the printmaking studio at Digswell Arts in Hertfordshire.
Christine Watson
Armillary Sundial 1, £110
mezzotint
I am currently working with the traditional mezzotint process, which allows me to work from dark to light in a very methodical and time-consuming (but enjoyable) way. I have always been interested in light and dark and this often becomes the main subject of my prints and pastels. Each new print presents me with the challenge of creating lights through a scraping and burnishing process whilst leaving the darks untouched, giving a black much richer than can be achieved using the usual aquatint method.
Teresa I. West
The City of London is a theme that recurs in different ways in my current work. The architecture promotes interpretations of shapes, structures and patterns, which interact with the everyday activity of people. Over the past year I have worked in relief printing to be able to consider line, block, marks and textures through using the different surfaces of both lino and wood. These two types of blocks give different print effects, which can add to the quality of the image, and this I find is part of the fascination of the print process.