Meet the printmaker: John Joseph Lynch

Please can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your work…What sort of prints do you make? 
Hi, I’m John Joseph Lynch, I’ve made a variety of types of prints since I began print making.

I mainly concentrate on fine art and experimental printmaking and have an MA with distinction in Multidisciplinary Printmaking. For my final show I took the Multidisciplinary aspect quite literally when I made a body of hybrid prints that re-synthised classic Iconography in relation to consumer philosophies. I made hybrid luxurious pieces of print work combining linocut, digital, and flock velvet print along side screen printed enamels. I screen printed acid resists then deep etched copper plates and finished this with a cloisonné approach to create printed relics made of copper and coloured glass, I used etchings onto plaster casts and continued to combine methods and print approaches.

The MA was a explosion of experimental adventures, combining a range of print processes over the three year duration of the course, in which I was also awarded a two week residency in the states studying the art of fine paper making. I have always enjoyed an experimental approach to my work and have often pushed in the other direction from ‘the norm’.

False Paradise, Ed 5, Lino Cut, Digital and Flock

After the MA I won the 'Neo Print Prize' for 'New Media In Print' and went on to be awarded the 'Peter Reddick Bursary' for 'Contemporary Relief Print' which allowed me to spend a year developing a relief print practice. It was a great time to make mistakes and develop from them.

This has recently ended and I would now say I have developed a unique and complex style of woodcut printing to take forwards and create new work, in which I use the photographic or digitally produced image in a hand-made fashion, combining traditional and contemporary methods for making art.

I really enjoy working with wood and the challenges this presents. It’s like paper: always changing. Sometimes it’s a real pleasure to work with, and other times it is a pest.

Key Block for Royal Mail.

My work is often conceptual as I have a contemporary fine art background, practice and interest.  I really enjoy the methods and possibilities within this context to explore, combine and create new types of imagery. Along with this, I love the science and elemental factors involved in fine print and the types of inks and papers that always give new results.  Sometimes it’s a feeling like painting where the elements are working with you, which is a lovely mood to be in.  

I’ve been printmaking for 16 years now and teach screen-printing and relief printing along with the odd visiting lecture, and really enjoy sharing my print knowledge with other printmakers and artists. This exchange of knowledge is really important for any creative development. 

This is why I’ve really enjoyed being part of the organising team for The Print Shop, and meeting so many great printmakers, helping to raise the profile and public understanding of print and also getting in touch with some true masters in the field, like Yuji Hiratsuka. 

Are you solely a printmaker or do you work in any other creative fields?
My first degree was fine art Painting and printmaking. Back then I used to really enjoy painting but it wasn’t long until the lure of printmaking grabbed me and I ended up producing a final show which was heavily print centralised. I even remember using oil based inks with screen printing to make dramatic abstract works in my teens. So, I’ve always been very attracted to Printmaking.

All the while I’ve always been really into making music and performance. After university some good pals and I soon got ourselves into a pretty outrageous band called Pink Grease. We got signed to Mute Records and toured the world, making our mark in the underground scenes and playing hundreds of shows. I love live music performance as it’s so immediately expressive and fun. I’ve put together a few music formations whilst in Bristol and had some fun gigs. I’m currently having a bit of time out of the live scene to work on new ideas, but I would say I prioritise printmaking as my main creative process these days. 

Mostly all of my work and practice is focused on driving forward my printmaking these days and recently that’s also included driving forward the profile of printmaking with projects such as The Print shop and connecting Bristol printmakers to friends at the Hong Kong Open Print Shop.

Printmaking is a language of imagery and production that suits my needs the most, I love it’s immediate historic reference and the connotations it has to so many aspects of art and modern culture. We’re surrounded by print and I’m a big believer of art being rooted in the real and reflecting society, so for me print is perfect.

Some Proofs made during the work of Royal Mail: V1

I teach printmaking and this is also a creative process to me, as I’m always surprised what people - with little or no experience in these processes - can come up with. The results of loads of mistakes and happy accidents can teach you things you’d never expect.  I think teaching and the learning of new skills is a really important aspect of all creativity. Sharing your practice is essential to it’s development and also another creative part of it. 

What is your earliest recollection of making a print and what made you to want to do more?
Foot Prints in the mud: making a mark of your own presence and place.

What inspires you and are there any themes or ideas that often run through your work?
I am usually inspired by the things that go on around us in the world, often by media and the news. I like my art to have a reflection to how I perceive the world or a given theme within it.  For example, my Criminal Prints showing a hybrid president of the united States, a mix of four presidents to create a fictional yet familiar figure head. This was also inspired by fiction such as '1984' or 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'. I love a good story for new ideas, which is why I often slightly dramatized or over fictionalise, real places or events.

Wesley, Ed2 in variations, woodcut. 

My newest print, which I have, at times been working on in the shop and is now on display in The Print Shop and the Old Fire Station in Oxford, is Royal Mail: V1.

This print was inspired by a number of things, firstly it has reference to a copy of a 1950’s post card of East Berlin I found. At that time, the vision of a utopian new lifestyle was offered and the postcard showed these amazing new flats in Technicolour. I loved the double sided edge to this image and the forced enthusiasm of the colours.

In my new print the image is an adjusted version of the old post office centre by Temple Meads, which to me stands, in its way, as an iconic monument, yet in may ways it is useless, unsellable, impossible to develop. It is places like this that always remind me of Satre’s Nausea, where he writes about the consistent forces of nature always ready to reclaim and take over wherever it can, purely acting on existence.

To me there is a poetic beauty in this type of place and a reflection of human conditions, the kind of place that can trigger hundreds of daydreams, yet in itself is the shell of it’s former purpose - like an empty crab.

Royal Mail: V1, Woodcut

Could you give us an insight into where you work – your studio/workspace and where you print?
I work in three places mostly: Firstly, at Spike Print Studio, as since being awarded the bursary there I’ve really been able to push my work and develop woodcut printmaking. It’s a truly great studio and I recommend it to anyone interested in print. The staff are all great and there is a real public approach to making work, with amazing print work happening mostly every day it’s a great place and we also do really good courses.

Secondly, I have a shared studio space at the Island Art Space where I have acquired a great screen printing set up and we also make a bit of music here. My friend Danny Le Guilcher is a great portrait painter and he paints here too. All the team running the art space are really clued up to getting the old building off the ground and I run workshops in the space too. There are always new shows, exhibitions and events happening there, so it is a great place to work, plus it’s right in the city centre.

Thirdly I must say there is nothing like a bit of sunny woodcutting in the cratch back home on the boat.

Which other printmakers' work do you admire?
Being heavily involved with the starting and keeping of The Print Shop since the outset has meant that I’ve met some really great printmakers in Bristol, who make some really amazing work. I’m so happy the shop has really brought together a range of approaches and talents in the art, raising the bar for printmaking in Bristol. It was also really great to get one of my favourite known printmakers involved for volume one. Yuji Hiratsuka’s work is truly beautiful and it was great having a Skype interview with him in the shop. 

There are so many printmakers I really admire the work of. I really like the prints by Katsutoshi Yuasa, Christiana Baumgartner, Chuck Close, Carol Summers, Thomas Kilpper and naturally I love the work of Andy Warhol and the pop art printmakers like Rauschenburg. The list goes on and I’m always finding new artists I really like. Artists have always used printmaking as a strong point for visual communication in the arts. I also really love the traditional Japanese Woodblock by artists like Hokusai, Kuniyoshi and Hiroshige and wish I could be this good.

Skeleton, Kuniyoshi, Woodcut. 

Local artists like Ian Chamberlain, Emma Stibbon, Martin grimmer, are all amazing at what they do and artists we’ve had in the shop like Hannah McVicar, Gillian Thompson,  Holly Drewett, and Coo Geller all make really interesting work with print and push it in different directions.

Our last guest also works like this. Peter Williams’s monumental woodblocks are a real homage to traditional print. He’ll be in the print shop talking about his work on the 21st.

Maybe it’s clear by the above list that I like artists who push common associations to an art and create new and exiting approaches.

Can you share a little printing trick or secret with us?
I share loads of printing magic on my courses and in the studio. Learning from others is always a good one. Most importantly, enjoy what you are doing and always stay calm when printing, although sometimes this isn’t the easiest.

I’m always booking new workshops for artists in my studio and other print studios so if you want to learn more you can get in touch with me through my website, jjlynch.org

How would you like to develop your printmaking skills in the future?
It’s a constant development for me, so I hope this continues. I always like to move out of the safety zone and see what’s new to learn so I always look forwards to the next piece of work, I hope this doesn’t change.

Which printed publication do you most look forward to thumbing through?
Printmaking Today, and exhibition catalogues.



Thank you for taking the time out to answer our questions John. It's inspiring to have not only your input and direction with the running of the shop, but also your incredible multidisciplinary approach to print-making.

John has a range of brand new work currently for sale in the shop, which is open from now until Christmas. Come and purchase his prints, while stocks last. A great personal treat or the ideal gift for a friend.

The Print Shop 

Unit 6 

Quakers Friars 

Cabot Circus 

Bristol 

BS1 3BU 

Open Daily 

Mon - Sat 10am - 6pm 

Sun 11am - 5pm

Meet the printmaker: Lucy Davey

We catch up with illustrator and silkscreen printmaker Lucy Davey, who's back for Volume 4 of The Print Shop.

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

I'm Lucy, I make screen prints and I work as a freelance illustrator.

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

Most of my work is commissioned illustration, mainly book covers and images for magazines. Its nice to do some printing occasionally and focus on my personal work

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

When I was a teenager I started making my own stamps from the polystyrene packaging that comes with pizzas! It works surprisingly well.  At college I got into monoprinting – I would layer paper over rolled out ink and draw on it. Then I started screen printing a bit at university.

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

I think landscape and nature are my main inspiration.  It's usually filtered through something else though; a film, book or a photograph will spark off an idea.  I love early photos of American landscapes, places I've never been. My prints are of imagined landscapes really.

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

I've been in the Drawn in Bristol studio since March.  It's great having the printing facilities here as well.  Before that I was at Snap studio and I've done a bit of printing at the excellent Spike print studio.

Which other printmakers' work do you admire?

I've got a couple of Jonny Hannah's screen prints up on my wall at home. I also love Japanese woodcut, especially Hide Kawanishi and Saito Kiyoshi. Edward Bawden is a big inspiration too.

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

I like it when you do your first pull and it actually works!

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

Its not really a secret, but keep your old cardboard rolls that parcel tape comes on.  They make excellent squeegee stands.

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

I'd quite like to re-visit lino cut at some point. And there's a lot more to learn about screen printing!

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

Nobrow.

Monochrome or multi-coloured?

I like colour, but no more than three please.

Thank you, Lucy!  We love your bold, graphic prints and will certainly be using your squeegee tip.

Lucy Davey returns to The Print Shop for Volume 4, which is open from now until Christmas.  Come and snap up one of her vibrant prints or handprinted Christmas decorations 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: Pirrip Press

 

 

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

Pirrip press was conceived by Georgie and myself last year. It is the joint culmination of our various creative enterprises. We work for clients on design, illustration and print work, with a particular focus on bespoke, hand printed stationery. We also design and produce work for ourselves, illustrations, posters, notebooks and other printed items, that we sell at markets, online and with a few independent retailers. We also illustrate, write, and self publish our own books. We try to produce one new publication a year, in limited editions of under 100 copies.
Our work is quite diverse, but we like colours, shapes, layers and words
and produce mainly silkscreen printed work, often limiting ourselves to
two or three colours.


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

We both love printing, but yes, we also work in other fields. Georgie teaches on illustration courses at Cheltenham and Cardiff and also lectures on the MA

in Illustration at Falmouth University. I do bits and pieces of design work and illustration as a freelancer and like drawing, but spend most of my time doing Pirrip Press work.

 

 

 

 

 

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

I think it was a butterfly print. At my Grandma and Granddad’s dining room
table. Where you make one half of the butterfly with Paint and then fold the
paper in half to squash (print!) the same pattern on the other side to make the
two identical wings of the butterfly. Not sure what print method that is!
They were brilliant and smudgy and bold though.
We were discussing print recently and both realised that one of our favourite
things is seeing lots of things all the same, all lined up.
Obviously printing an edition and seeing it drying on the rack is therefore
massively satisfying for us!

 

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

We are both storytellers, and know that things are nearly always better if
there's a story behind them, so we do plenty of research. We're also both quite keen on science and nature, there are lots of youngster's science books in our studio. They are a really good source of inspiration, and as the information they impart is usually in bite sized bits for children, they're easy for our non-scientific minds to comprehend!

 

 

 

 



Could you Give us an insight into where you work, your studio or workplace and
where you print?

We have a small studio at home, more of an office really.
This is where we do our design work and all the prep for our prints.
It's pretty full, big plan chest and two desks, and there are a few inspirational
prints hanging on the walls.
We have a whole run (20ish) of time life books with their different coloured
spines all lined up in rainbow order.
We print at spike island, where we are key holders. It's a brilliant studio and
we really enjoy working there. Everyone is friendly and helpful, and it's really
nice to chat to people about their work and what everyone is up to.


The work of which other printmakers do you admire?
We have a Sister Arrow print which is lovely and bright and hopeful, and we also have a big Johnny Hannah screen print waiting to be framed.
We like lots of old printmakers, both of us are Ravilious fans. And I really like the lithographs that Rosemary and Clifford Ellis made in the 50s onwards, mainly commercial work for transport for London and book covers for the new nature series, but it's really vibrant and beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

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

The layering. Constructing the image in your mind and in black and white
and then the magic when you layer the colours and the new colours come
through in the overlaps.


Do you have a favourite tool or something you find invaluable when printing?
We have a good small wooden handled squeegee which is pretty old but a
firm favourite because it's light.


Can you share a little printing trick or secret with us?
Not sure it's a secret but the multiply filter in Photoshop / illustrator is
invaluable for checking what colours the different opacities of ink might
produce when it comes to print. And we like to twist our pile of paper before we start printing so it's easier to pick up the single sheets.

 

 

 

How would you like to develop your printmaking skills in the future?
We are always striving to print the best prints we can so we will always be
looking for better methods and tricks! I think we would both like to do a little
more unplanned printing, some experiments where we don't have a fixed
outcome in mind, as we really enjoy the playful printing when we do it,
and like the look of the test sheets where three jobs worth of random printing

is all layered up on top of one another.


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


Monochrome or multi-coloured?

Variety is the spice of life.

 

Thank you for sharing your working process and inspirations, Alex and Georgie!

Pirrip Press 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 - Anna Harley

The latest of our artist interviews... we were delighted to catch up with Anna Harley. Amongst other things, Anna gives us an insight into her ancestry, influences and love of print...

Please can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your work…What sort of prints do you make?
I completed a Masters Degree in Printmaking at UWE about five years ago and have been building up a body of work ever since, predominantly screenprints. While the work I make is rooted within the Landscape tradition, the fabric textures in my prints are an echo of my Scandinavian Arts and Crafts background and nomadic childhood. I now live with my family at the foothills of the Mendips, just South of Bristol and divide my time between my studio at home and Spike Print Studio in Bristol. I sell my work through galleries in London, Cardiff and Bristol and also have recently exhibited in London at The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Bite: Artists making Prints and Battersea Affordable Arts Fair.

Catkins ( 76cm x 56cm)

Are you solely a printmaker or do you work in any other creative fields?
I now almost exclusively produce screenprints, though I have done a lot of painting in the past, mainly in oils and acrylic. I make a lot of things for my home – ranging from home made curtains and upholstery to the hand printed ceramic tiles that line my shower room! Working as a part time mathematics teacher ensures that there is a regular pay-check coming in and both mathematics and teaching are very creative processes.

What is your earliest recollection of making a print and what made you to want to do more?
I owe my preference for print to my Swedish lineage – my Great grandfather’s sister, Maja Fjaestad, was a well known artist in Southern Sweden. Maja’s paintings and prints decorated the walls of the houses of my relatives and I now even have a few of my own. I grew up surrounded by her work and that of the other Rackstad Artists; equivalent to the Bloomsbury group in England of the same time. The Rackstad colony and grounds, near Lake Racken in Sweden, are now preserved as a museum and art gallery. During an HNC course, I began to make very large scale (150cm x 100cm) woodcut prints. As a result of the large amount of cutting away necessary, I developed trigger finger, a RSI, and looked for another less damaging and quicker print method to use. Screenprint proved to be a flexible alternative print medium that had the added benefit of enabling me to incorporate digital imagery in my work. In a hangover from the relief print production, I still often create stencil cut outs from black card for screenprint exposure and use wood like textures as background to the silhouette imagery: I like the feel of a hand cut line and wood grain effect of chiffon moiré.

Mini Print - Gold Leaf 

What inspires you and are there any themes or ideas that often run through your work? Inspirations for my work include; how it feels to be outside, tree silhouettes, passing seasons, the sky and how it changes from sunrise to evening, the weather..... Like a Jackdaw, I love things that sparkle and twinkle. I often use metallic pigments and, in a move that fully embraced my inner kitsch, I have recently made a snow print using white glitter.

Could you give us an insight into how and where you work?
I constantly collect material and ideas for new prints while gardening, or out walking in the countryside around where I live, in the foothills of the Mendips. I am lucky to have a North facing studio set up at home, where I draw and prepare artwork for printing. Once everything is ready, I make my screenprints at Spike Print Studio, in Bristol, where I have been a member for the last five years. Thanks to Spike Print Studio’s 24 hour access, I have been known to print through the night!...but the best time of day for me is early in the morning. I have a routine – apron on means it is time to work.

Mini Print - Sunrise

Printmaking is made up of lots of different processes, which aspect do you enjoy the most?
The screenprinting process suits my practice, because it allows me to build images in fine layers of ink, printing layer upon layer until I am happy with the final print. I use a combination of drawing, digital photography and objects directly exposed on the screen, to create these individual layers. I enjoy the tension this creates in my images – is the print based on a drawing or photograph? Is it attached to fabric, pencil marks or ink? While engaged in the creative process, I try to stay open minded about how the finished print will look, to allow the print to make itself – print is an extremely process led way of making art and allowing the unexpected to happen and taking advantage of these happy accidents allows the work to stay fresh and exciting. I love the drama of proofing a print; when suddenly everything comes together with the final layer of ink – and the print starts to sing. Once I am happy with the initial artists proof, I will then screenprint an additional number of limited edition prints, each matched against the artist proof, which I sign and edition (1/25, 2/25 etc). Because prints are produced in multiples, high quality prints are much more affordable than other forms of original art. I believe that original art belongs in people’s homes every bit as much as it belongs in public galleries and communal spaces, and with this in mind, I have recently made a series of mini-prints - small landscapes printed in editions of 80, with intention of making artwork that is affordable for all. These will be on sale in the shop during July and August.

Do you have a favorite tool or something you find invaluable when printing?
For the last few years I have almost exclusively printed up to the deckle edge of the paper – I think this is a more contemporary approach to print. Historically a paper margin of around six inches was left around the edge of the print and used to attach the print behind a mount ready to frame - all my work is now ‘float mounted’ so the print appears to float in its frame – celebrating, rather than hiding the print and the paper. The longer I spend as a screen-printer, the fussier I become about my materials. Where I was once perfectly happy with standard acrylic printing inks, I am now only really happy with the expensive higher quality pigment inks available from Lascaux..... I am also a real paper nerd – and love the quality of specialist, acid free, 100% cotton papers like the French artisan made, ‘Arches 88’ – expensive to buy, but worth every penny because of the print quality and archival features.

Starry Night

Can you share a little printing trick or secret with us?
Don’t work in isolation - Community is really important. The best thing I ever did was to become a member of Spike Print Studio, this gave me a base to work from and a readymade artistic community of fellow print makers, to spur me on, bounce new ideas around and help with advice and guidance when I come up against problems.

How would you like to develop your printmaking skills in the future?
Where to start? I make sure I enroll on at least one new course a year and I spend time each week talking to other members at Spike Print Studio about what they are making, in order to keep my work fresh and continually evolving. If I could introduce a few more days to each week, I would experiment across more print mediums. In the near future, I would like to mix embossing, laser and chine collé with screenprint. Anything that involves breaking a few rules – in spite of my Scandinavian upbringing, I am secretly quite subversive…

Which printed publication do you most look forward to thumbing through?
Anything by Deborah Wye

Monochrome or multi-coloured?
Both

A selection of six mini prints, all screen printed

Clockwise from top left: Gold Leaf, Autumn Beech, Sunrise, Starry Night, Sunset, Moon Fruit

Thanks Anna for sharing so much with us, your prints are truly beautiful!

Anna Harley is one of the many talented printmakers contributing to Volume 3 of The Print

Shop, October 2nd - November 3rd... Why not come along and have a look for yourself!

The Print Shop

Unit 6

Quakers Friars

Cabot Circus

Bristol

BS1 3BU

Open Daily

Mon - Sat 10am - 6pm

Sun 11am - 5pm

Meet the Printmaker - Charlotte Farmer

Charlotte Farmer screen printing at Spike Island Print Studios

Please can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your work…What sort of prints do you make? 
I'm Charlotte Farmer – Illustrator & screenprinter with a love of gold and fluroescent.

What is your earliest recollection of making a print and what made you to want to do more?
My first print was made while I was doing an art foundation course. The print department was on the top floor of the foundation building, it smelt great and was where all the cool kids in their Black Flag T-shirts seemed to be. Once I peeled back the paper on my first print (a linocut of a chair) there was no going back – I went on to a fine art degree specializing in printmaking where I got hooked on screen printing...

What inspires you and are there any themes or ideas that often run through your work? 
I love drawing grumpy looking animals and my cat Margo makes regular appearances. But I have branched out into more exotic creatures in my recent work. I like to imagine what thoughts or conversations all the aniamls (or whatever else I've been drawing) might be having. I think titles are really important as they can influence how people see your work.

Could you give us an insight into where you work – your studio/workspace and where you print? 
I print at the very fabulous Spike Print Studio, an amazing space with interesting people to talk to which is good because the rest of my time is spent home alone drawing.

The work of which other printmaker/s do you admire? 
I've always been a big fan of Robert Rauschenberg's screenprints and David Hockney's Rake's Progress etchings. Closer to home I like Luice Sheridan, Jane Ormes and Anna Marrow's work – Anna and I both went through the rigors of a St Martins MA (they tried to stop us printing!)
They all draw brilliantly, use great colour combinations and there is always an element of humour or something that makes you wonder what is going on.

Printmaking is made up of lots of different processes, which aspect do you enjoy the most?
The way the last colour makes all the other, seemingly random blobs of colour make sense...that's if it's all worked out ok.

Bananas

Can you share a little printing trick or secret with us ? 
It doesn't fit in with the image of an artist but you have to be ridiculously organised when you're screen printing, if you're not it can easily all go horribly wrong.

How would you like to develop your printmaking skills in the future? 
I like embossing – and always mean to do more.

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

Monochrome or multi-coloured? 
Both and gold and fluroescent.

Thanks Charlotte. We love the playfulness of you work and the assortment of colours that you use so well together.

Charlotte Farmer's work is currently featured in the second volume of The Print Shop, which finishes this Sunday, but don't worry, she'll also be in Volume 3 too! So get yourself down there to see the selection of work she has on display, including greetings cards, mounted prints and framed pieces on a lovely display wall. Also remember to put Wednesday 2nd October in you diaries for the launch of the new exciting 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 - Lee Kellgren

Please can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your work…What sort of prints do you make?
My name is Lee and I am a printmaker mostly working in etching.

Are you solely a printmaker or do you work in any other creative fields?
I used to work in computer graphics but was always interested in natural textures and colours.

What is your earliest recollection of making a print and what made you to want to do more?
When we moved to Bristol many years ago I went back to art classes at Queen’s Road  and started  exploring printmaking and my first series of prints were about  the extraordinary 18C coaching inn we had moved into.

What inspires you and are there any themes or ideas that often run through your work?  
My  artwork is  usually about trying to capture a  place/moment. People who have bought my work have used the following descriptions :
Peaceful – Recollection/memory -  suspended moment of time -  a  deeply significant place – delicate – melancholy- deserted.

Could you give us an insight into where you work – your studio/workspace and where you print?
I  make prints in the lovely etching studio that looks onto the river at Spike Print Studio.

The work of which other printmaker/s do you admire?
The  painterly etched  landscapes by Norman Ackroyd

Printmaking is made up of lots of different processes, which aspect do you enjoy the most?  
Peeling back the  wet paper from the press bed  to see the first print from a plate.  Did it work?  Did the process add more than expected?

Do you have a favourite tool or something you find invaluable when printing?
Deep pockets for tools and stuff in a big apron covered in ink stains!

Can you share a little printing trick or secret with us?
You don’t need a lot of expensive tools for etching- I use a knitting needle to draw into the wax ground on a printing plate.

How would you like to develop your printmaking skills in the future?
I would like to work on a larger scale  and make more immersive images using aluminium etching. As an art medium, I enjoy the creative challenges within the technical boundaries that etching provides.

Thanks Lee. We love the range of different processes you use and the moments you capture in your work.

Lee Kellgren's work is currently featured in the second volume of The Print Shop, which runs until September 29th. She has work framed on our lovely wall packed full of beautiful hand printed delights and in the print racks which you can browse through to find prints ranging from fifteen pounds to a few hundred pounds. 

The Print Shop

Unit 6

Quakers Friars

Cabot Circus

Bristol

BS1 3BU

Open Daily

Mon - Sat 10am - 6pm

Sun 11am - 5pm