Meet the printmaker: Ian Chamberlain

Please can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your work...

What sort of prints do you make?
My name is Ian Chamberlain and I am an artist/printmaker.
I work primarily with Etching and am inspired by man made objects.

Are you solely a printmaker or do you work in any other creative fields?
I work with print and drawing. I use drawing as a way to record information
and understand the subject. I will then take selected drawings that I feel
will be enhanced by the etching process. I usually create a series of prints
to give me several ways to record the subject matter.
I will sometimes exhibit drawings separately and alongside the prints.

What is your earliest recollection of making a print and what made you to want to do more?
My earliest recollection of printmaking was printing potato cuts at primary school, funnily enough the work has not changed that much, it is still about physical manipulation of the print matrix through cutting and scraping.
When I was introduced to the Rhinoceros Print by Albrecht Durer I was
fascinated in the way Printmaking can be used to tell a story or be used to
deliver information that may be correct or not.

 

  
What inspires you and are there any themes or ideas that often run through your work?
My work is influenced by manmade structures, reinterpreting them as monuments placed within the landscape. They are devoid of people; the architectural scale can no longer be based on the physical measurement of the human body. I am interested in the use of a traditional Print process such as etching being used to record subject matter that is generally at the cutting edge of technology for its time. I aim to represent and interpret the form and function of these objects, simplifying the complex structure. The prints are constantly being scrutinized, giving them an existence of their own rather than a perfectly re-produced image. I am interested in the use of a traditional Print process such as etching being used to record subject matter that is generally at the cutting edge of technology for its time.

The work of which other printmaker/s do you admire?
I have always taken huge influence from Giorgio Morandi and Piranesi and although not printmakers in their own right, Bernd and Hilla Bechers photographs have given me huge inspiration and given me a wider scope
for my own work. I also get inspired by teaching onto the M.A Printmaking course and Drawing and Applied Arts course at UWE (University of the West of England). It is very easy to be able to feed off the energy and enthusiasm the students bring. Over the last few years some very exciting work has been created and I hope even more diverse and challenging works will be achieved
in the future.

Printmaking is made up of lots of different processes, which aspect do you enjoy the most?       
For me the enjoyment is in the physical manipulation of the plate and the effects this brings to the final print. I spend a lot of time working and reworking the plates; it is in this time spent I feel the prints have a life of their own away from the original subject matter.

Do you have a favourite tool or something you find invaluable when printing?
My burnisher, music and coffee.

Can you share a little printing trick or secret with us ?
Add a little bit of chalk to your ink to make it stiffer, this will make it harder
to over wipe.

How would you like to develop your printmaking skills in the future? 
I would love to have more time to dedicate to my work and really start
to develop an understanding of the range of marks and tones that can
be achieved through etching.

Monochrome or multi-coloured?
Monochrome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Ian will be at The Print Shop for the rest of Volume 3.

The Print Shop

Unit 6

Quakers Friars

Cabot Circus

Bristol

BS1 3BU

Open Daily

Mon - Sat 10am - 6pm

Sun 11am - 5pm

Meet the printmaker: Abi Ponton (Pigeon Illustration)

Please can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your work? What sort of prints do you make?

I am lucky enough to be a member of Drawn in Bristol and make use of their screen-printing studio in Hamilton House.  I love drawing and generally make bright and colourful prints of the charismatic creatures I draw.  I like the freedom drawing gives me as a starting point and love the challenge of having to restrain this is a number of ways for screen-printing.  The more I print, the more I learn about the medium and what a range of things you can do with it.  I’ve learned to think in print and get excited about experimenting with the medium in different ways.

When I’m not drawing or printing, I’m always looking forward to my next drawing trip, which generally involves hiding myself away in dark corners of museums and discovering exciting artifacts that kickstart creative ideas.  I’ll draw anything that catches my imagination at the time, whether it’s because of its form, texture, colour or historical/narrative content.

Are you solely a printmaker, or do you work in any other creative fields?

I love working in a range of media. I experiment with different techniques depending on what I think best fits the idea I have in my head, which could be drawing, print, collage, textiles, sculpture, an impromptu tap dancing performance or the occasional painting.

What is your earliest recollection of making a print and what made you to want to do more? 

Apart from potato printing in Primary school, my early memories of printing are from college and university, and looking at my mum’s borrowed library books of Edward Bawden’s beautiful prints.

I have always loved hand-printed work, but it took me a while to get into printing as a technique because there is so much that can go wrong and it is so time consuming.  I wanted to make everything quickly in a fit of inspiration, but two of my tutors at university were avid printmakers and showed me the beautiful, earthy and soulful art that they made and I loved it. 

I was soon drawn to the mysterious Victorian machinery and the smells of the inks and equipment of the campus print room.  I began to love the flow of the processes, the unpredictability of the outcome and admire the happy accidents.

What inspires you?  Are there any themes or ideas that often run through your work?

Animals and pattern are an obvious theme to my work, but I also think a lot about character and colour when making my work.  I like the details that can bring the charm and character out of a living creature or an inanimate object, such as the damage on an ancient artefact, the asymmetry of a cactus, or the wonky eye of a badly stuffed hare!

Could you give us an insight into where you work;your studio/workspace and where you print?

I really enjoy drawing from real life, so I go on a lot of drawing trips to galleries, museums, parks, cafes and anywhere I can get out of the house and wander around, gathering sketches, information and ideas.  I develop these drawings by experimenting in different materials at my desk at home, before planning the layers of colour, if they are destined for the print room.

Which other printmakers' work do you admire?

Locally, I love the work of Jane Ormes, Simon Tozer and Charlotte Farmer, because their work is full of colour and character.  I've also come across John Kilburn's work in this volume of The Print Shop, which I love for the same reasons.

Printmaking is made up of lots of different processes.  Which aspect of printmaking do you enjoy the most?

I like planning the layers and mixing printing inks; it gets me excited to envisage how the print is going to turn out.  Colour is very important to me and I don’t start to print until I have a vivid image in my head of the exact tones I want to use.

Do you have a favourite tool or something you find invaluable when printing?

Patience and strength of mind.  Printing is a physically and mentally demanding process!

Can you share a little printing trick or secret with us?

Save some cake or a snack for when you’re almost finished to see you through the final processes of cleaning, tidying and packing up.

How would you like to develop your printmaking skills in the future?

I'd like to experiment more with texture and over-lapping colours...and also learn how to be tidy and organised!

Which printed publication do you most look forward to thumbing through?

I like buying Vogue and Home Magazines to read and dream about that perfect life, before cutting them up for collaging!  Zines are a little obsession of mine too.  I don’t buy a specific one regularly, I just like to pick up the lesser-known names that have caught my attention, for whatever reason.

And finally, monochrome or multi-coloured?
Multi-coloured for sure!

Thank you, Abi!  It's great to know more about your love of colour and your love and enthusiasm for printing.

Abi Ponton (Pigeon Illustration) will be at The Print Shop for the rest of Volume 3.  Come and snap up one of her vibrant prints, while stocks last!

The Print Shop

Unit 6

Quakers Friars

Cabot Circus

Bristol

BS1 3BU

Open Daily

Mon - Sat 10am - 6pm

Sun 11am - 5pm

Meet the printmaker: Gilian Thompson

Please can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your work…What sort of prints do you make?

 

I did a photography degree right before everything turned digital.  I travelled
for 10 years then moved to Bristol to do an MA in Multi-disciplinary Printmaking. I am a member of Spike Print Studio and I’m currently working as a Technical Intern at UWE’s Print Centre.

I specialise in intaglio printing and etch with both copper and aluminium.
My work is about paring-down form and line to a minimum in order to evoke
a particular emotion.  I’m interested in how simplicity can produce a quiet yet powerful presence in space.

 

 



Are you solely a printmaker or do you work in any other creative fields?

Just print. It takes up all my time.

 

 

What is your earliest recollection of making a print and what made you to want to do more?

An old Catalan artist, Albert Plaza, taught me how to etch with nitric acid a few years ago. I liked the alchemy of it.

 

 



 

What inspires you and are there any themes or ideas that often run through your work?

Simple elemental forms, handmade paper and lots of black ink.  My inspiration comes a lot from found photographs, and reinventing compositions.

 

 

 

 



 

 

The work of which other printmaker/s do you admire?

The story of Kathan Brown who took an old etching press she found in Edinburgh all the way over to San Francisco in the 1960’s.  With this press she set up Crown Point Press. Functioning as a print workshop and publisher, Crown Point invites artists to complete a residency where they are assigned a personal technician.  Over the years it has hosted artists such as Sol LeWitt, Chuck Close, Anish Kapoor, Ed Ruscha and Kiki Smith. Art historian Susan Tallman, author of The Contemporary Print, has described Crown Point Press as, ‘The most instrumental American printshop in the revival of etching as a medium of serious art.’

http://www.crownpoint.com/

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Printmaking is made up of lots of different processes, which aspect do you enjoy 

the most?

Inking and wiping the plate before printing. It’s meditative.

 

Do you have a favourite tool or something you find invaluable when printing?

Heavy weight handmade paper, with beautiful asymmetrical sides and feathery deckles. Camp coffee- though, not to drink!

 

 

 

 

Can you share a little printing trick or secret with us ?

Make yourself a reusable registration sheet. If you draw a square grid on a piece of mark resist you can use the same sheet no matter what your plate or paper size.

 

How would you like to develop your printmaking skills in the future?                          

 

I  would like to edition work for artists.  I like the idea of working with people who don’t use printmaking in their everyday practice. I’m curious to see how a sculptor or a painter would approach etching. One of the most interesting collaborations I’ve heard of is when John Cage put fire through a press.



 



 

Gilly will be at The Print Shop for the rest of Volume 3.

She will also be teaching Intro To Etching on 1st November, find out more about the workshop click here 

The Print Shop

Unit 6

Quakers Friars

Cabot Circus

Bristol

BS1 3BU

Open Daily

Mon - Sat 10am - 6pm

Sun 11am - 5pm

Meet the printmaker: Ann Gover

 

 

 



Please can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your work…
What sort of prints do you make?

My name is Ann Gover, and I’m an artist working in various media – currently enamel and etching, as well as printmaking. I think of myself as a traditional painter with strong links to the past.

 

 

                                                                                        

Reverie

 

 

Are you solely a printmaker or do you work in any other creative fields?

I have taught watercolour and worked in pastel for many years.

 

 

What is your earliest recollection of making a print and what made you to want to do more?

 

I come from an artistic family – my American grandfather was the architect for Bush House in the Strand in London, my grandmother was a sculptor, my mother painted and wrote, and my father was a writer. They gave me art books when I was quite young and encouraged me to paint; when I first saw etchings by Goya, Rembrandt and Kathe Kollwitz I wanted to experiment with printmaking.

 

Perseus carrying the head of the Gorgon Medusa.

 

 

 



What inspires you and are there any themes or ideas that often run through your work? 

I travel frequently and read a great deal. I derive inspiration from the countries I visit, particularly Africa, and from writers such as W. G. Sebald and Joseph Conrad as well as the Greek myths.

Could you give us an insight into where you work – your studio/workspace and where you print?
My studio is a room and kitchenette with lots of light on a first floor. I have my kiln there (instead of an oven!) for enamelling, but I don’t have a printing press, so I do my printing at Spike Island.

 

 

 

My Studio

 

 

The work of which other printmaker/s do you admire?

The Brazilian artist Ana Maria Pacheco is a great inspiration. Also Odilon Redon, Paula Rego and Kathe Kollwitz.

 

Printmaking is made up of lots of different processes, which aspect do you enjoy the most?
I love the spontaneity of monoprinting (monoprints are also known as monotypes). In a more contemplative mood I like planning drypoints.

 

Pandora

 

 

 



Do you have a favourite tool or something you find invaluable when printing?

I like working a paintbrush into the ink when I’m doing a monoprint, as this frees up the design, and is a link with my painting.

 

Can you share a little printing trick or secret with us ?

To get very dark areas in my drypoints, instead of crosshatching I use different grades of sandpaper.

How would you like to develop your printmaking skills in the future?
I would like to do larger work and experiment more with aquatint.

                                                                                                                                                      African Night

 

 

 

 

Thank you Ann for sharing your artistic world, processes and inspirations.

Ann Gover will be at The Print Shop for the rest of Volume 3. 

The Print Shop

Unit 6

Quakers Friars

Cabot Circus

Bristol

BS1 3BU

Open Daily

Mon - Sat 10am - 6pm

Sun 11am - 5pm