Description
Drawing has always been an innate part of me. As a child, I was always observing and making marks, conjuring up images from my imagination, and later, reproducing a likeness of anything that caught my eye, especially natural objects.
Still-life and landscape drawing developed into a lifelong passion, running alongside a recurrent compulsion for collecting botanical ephemera.
Originally training and working as a graphic designer, I took a winding route through different career choices & family life, but, after gaining a BA Hons in Fine Art in 2011, I returned to focus on developing my art practice to include printmaking, drawing and handmade artist books.
Landscapes are a constant. The flow of open spaces, particularly moorland, lead the eye through form, texture and light. The scenery, punctuated by rocky tors, filigree trees, bendy hawthorns and lone conifers, offer contrasts between subtle, gentle mists and brooding, deep, atmospheric conditions.
The monotype process is a flexible one. Adding and removing ink and manipulating textures on the plate offers a painterly response and a building up of individual layers on each unique print generates unplanned outcomes. Recent use of Japanese Awagami papers has added an ethereal quality to some prints, with a greater focus on light and transparency.
A viewer’s sense of their own space within the landscape is important. Wandering through these vistas, the viewer can be drawn into ‘other places’, sensing the familiar, yet illusive nature of memory and belonging.
In recent years, my drawing practice has featured many trees from ancient woods which have become a natural addition to my monotypes. The contrast between more botanical drawings and the fluid, sketchy features of the trees in my monotypes has been an exciting development.
Over the last ten years, I have exhibited nationally and internationally with both my printmaking and handmade artist books. I frequently enjoy exhibiting with the Drawn to the Valley Artists Group in the Tamar Valley, and, in 2021 took part in the Awagami Mini-Print Fair in Japan. I am delighted to be exhibiting at Ironbridge Fine Arts!
