About Me
I came to etching after a long period of experimentation with ceramics, batik and painting. After travelling down from Liverpool, where I was born, to study at Sussex University in Brighton, I spent time in Botswana as a volunteer. The colours and shapes of the land inspired me to paint and my teaching experience there prompted a journey which saw me train as a teacher at London University, where I made frequent use of a large and well-equipped pottery studio in the basement. I then worked in a college in the east end of London, moving on to train others who had also chosen to teach students in further education.
Then, around twenty five years ago, I discovered etching. I had returned to Brighton and had begun a printmaking course at the university. The first medium I attempted was screenprinting but I found it really difficult to shape my ideas to suit the process. I then tried etching and immediately I had a match between what I wanted to communicate, how I chose to represent my ideas and the tecniques available. I think it's probably a mixture of the opportunity to create a relief texture which you can feel and the sheer unpredictability of the action of acid on metal.
While I was learning to etch I was introduced to bookbinding. I make leather bound albums and sketchbooks with raised textures to represent the trees which feature so often in my etchings. I also print and bind artist books, combining etching with images designed and produced through photoshop and printed digitally.
My work is currently on show in galleries in Brighton, Lewes, Alfriston and London and I have exhibited in various venues along the south coast and in London, including the British Library, in the Lake District, in Glasgow and in the Shetland Islands. I am a member of bipArt printmaking studio in Brighton where I sometimes print and with whom I exhibit at the Affordable Art Fair In London.
Some of my etchings appear as illustrations in these two books:
Engraved on Steel The History of Picture Production using Steel Plates
Basil Hunnisett Ashgate Publishing 1998
Printmaking Traditional and Contemporary Techniques
Ann d'Arcy Hughes and Hebe Vernon-Morris Rotovision 2008
I strongly recommend the latter to anyone interested in understanding the printmaking process, either as an artist practitioner or as a collector.