July 2020
I am an experimental fine art printmaker, but prints are not the only things I make.
The printmaking process provides the starting point, subject matter and methods for my practice. This often produces surprising end results. These include sculptures, unprinted, low-relief pieces on a variety of surfaces, as well as prints on paper.
Although I produce some figurative work, the vast majority is abstract, because I am more interested in texture, form and the overall visual power of my imagery than in direct reflections of nature.
After some years experimenting with semi-abstract landscape photography, I felt that I had exhausted its creative possibilities. In 2013, I attended a taster day producing texture-based prints at The Ropewalk, an arts centre and gallery near the Humber Bridge. This opened my eyes to almost endless possibilities for producing impactful images and exploring texture through the use of synthetic and natural materials.
Currently, I am undertaking the first Print Fellowship in the School of Design at the University of Lincoln. I am an active, exhibiting member of the Printmakers Council.
Current themes in my work
For the past two years I have been investigating ways in which I might ‘escape the frame’ – moving beyond traditional forms of printmaking where prints are presented flat and behind glass. As texture is an important element in my work, it has seemed increasingly counter-intuitive to flatten it in this way.
‘Flexures’: three dimensions from two
Flexures are paper sculptures made from sheets of paper that have been pre-creased in multiple directions, folded, opened up again and then printed on. The dried prints are then re-creased to form free-standing sculptures. The differing directions to the paper folds offer an almost endless number of possibilities for the form of the Flexure.
Treasure
These are pieces of fine printmaking papers to which metal leaf has been glued. A heat gun is applied to the surface which reacts with the composition of the leaf, resulting in vibrant, iridescent colours and singes the edges of the paper. To date, ‘Treasure’ pieces have taken two different forms: images printed from multiple, segmented plates and non-printed pieces made with burnt copper, silver and gold metal leaf.
Lamina
Lamina are printing plates, originally intended to produce prints as an end product. However, a gallery owner and art business consultant noticed aspects of their makeup – materials, inked colours and surface textures – that demanded consideration works of art in their own right. The plates are made from birch plywood or acetate sheets.
Upcoming exhibitions
#365interestingthings
Objects, photographs and prints from an Instagram project that documented my printmaking practice and its creative influences, between August 2018 and November 2019.
Project Space Plus, University of Lincoln. 1 – 15 February 2021
Sam Scorer Gallery
An exhibition of plates prints and sculptures from the last two years of my practice, including the Print Fellowship at the University of Lincoln.
Sam Scorer Gallery, Lincoln. 25 October – 7 November 2021