Meet The Artist: Hannah McVicar

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

I am Hannah McVicar and I produce colourful floral and botanical screenprints that I exhibit internationally and throughout the country.

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

I am an Illustrator and Printmaker, I produce floral illustrations for books, magazines, greeting cards and packaging. My illustrations were recently compared to William Morris in a review in the New York Times.

I have worked for a variety of clients including The Times Newspaper, Gardens Illustrated magazine and Ebury Publishing.

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

My first memory of producing a screenprint was at Girl Guides. We had to cut an image out of a waxed transfer that was applied to the screen and then we screenprinted our image on to a t-shirt. I of course had drawn a flower but then I was only 10 at the time.

It was whilst I was studying at Falmouth College of Art that I really started to explore all areas of printmaking. I spent my first year experimenting with relief printmaking, in my second year I was really interested in aquatints, but it was in my final year that I branched out into screenprinting, where I started to experiment with colour.

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

I am often asked why do I just concentrate on plants and flowers. Many believe that it is because of my upbringing around plants, visiting botanical gardens and RHS Flower shows. And yes this has had a massive influence on me. I do not think many people of my age can state that they have been to 20 RHS Chelsea flower shows. I have had the privilege of being able to walk around the showground at 7am in the morning before the gates open. The floral marquee is full of exhibits and plants from all over the world, thousands and thousands of prize winning specimens. The colour and smell is intense. Every year I find a new plant that inspires me. People may find me crazy but I like to imagine the plants as characters, dancing with one another within a garden. I think nature is amazing and the more I research the more I admire the variety of plants there are in this world. 

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

I am very fortunate to be apart of two studios within Bristol. I have a studio space at Jamaica Street Studios where I produce all of my designs and illustrations and I am also a member of Spike Print Studio. I first joined Spike Print studio in 2004 and then after a brief period of working in America, I rejoined in 2007. This print studio is one of the main reasons why I have stayed in Bristol. Not only is it an amazing facility but it also contains some of the best printmakers in Britain, who inspire and encourage me with my work.

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

It is more of an era than one particular artist, I have always been influenced by the books, publications and prints produced in the 1980’s – Aubrey Beardsley, Alphonse Mucha, Edmund Dulac and Kay Nielsen to name a few. There is a beauty and romance to their work.

But the artist, who has had the biggest impact on me, is my great Grandfather Thomas Lowinsky.

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

It is the process of creating a screenprinting that excites me. You can never quite tell how the stencils will work and how the colours will react to one another. I love to use tints and transparent colours that I layer to create depth and texture.

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

Magnets - when I am proofing or just working out my colour combinations, I will magnet up the print on the wall and walk away from it. When I am printing I am very close to my work but this is not how someone else will view it, so I like to hang it up and walk to the other side of the room, if it draws me in then I know it is right.

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

Florescent pink is the secret ingredient to most of my colours that I mix.

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

I have always been very ambitious with my prints, with more layers and colours and bigger compositions. Since my exhibition in Japan, I have been approaching botanical gardens throughout England about producing a series of prints influenced by the planting combination within their gardens. I really want to push my colour combinations with brighter and bolder prints.

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

It is slightly biased of me but I do enjoy reading Gardens Illustrated magazine, it contains the best garden photography.

Monochrome or multi-coloured?

Multi coloured!

A young Hannah McVicar at Thomas Lowinsky’s retrospective exhibition,

Tate Britain, 1990.

Wow! Thanks for that insight into your wonderful botanical works, it's really great to know how much time, effort and skill goes into making your complex and highly desirable prints. Great to know you also hold the local record for visits to the Chelsea Flower Show. Its been a pleasure having your work in the shop. 

Hannah's screen prints will be on sale in the print shop until the end of the final volume, there's an excellent range of her works so pop down and take a look for yourselves. 

The Print Shop 

Unit 6 

Quakers Friars 

Cabot Circus 

Bristol 

BS1 3BU 

Open Daily 

Mon - Sat 10am - 6pm 

Sun 11am - 5pm

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 - 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: Dave Bain

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

I enjoy taking on a challenge, which is what has held my interest in exploring illustration and the associated grey areas that it merges into, such as design and more conceptual or character artwork. Sometimes it's a tricky job to try and personally define where my work sometimes falls. More often than not it's focus is illustrative and I think even when I'm creating a piece of artwork from my own imagination, there tends to still be a purpose, meaning and attempt-to-explain a wider concept or story.

Flock (detail), 4 colour screen-print

Drawing out 'Flock'

Recently, I've tried to include my screen-printing know-how into my practice more and more. I fell in love with the way screen-printing can force a limitation (depending on what limits I set) on how I create an image. It's focused me even more on the colour palettes I choose and I've had fun discovering the layers that build up an image and how I can reduce those layers down, without losing the complexity and clarity. You can see a range of my screen-prints here.

James the Elephant, 3-colour screen-print

Are you solely a printmaker or do you work in any other creative fields?
I have always loved producing things in a traditional manner and have drawn and painted as long as I can remember. Painting and drawing is certainly always the starting point with all my projects. It's interesting to be translating these skills into printmaking methods.

Two of the layers, drawn in 4B pencil of 'James the Elephant'

Two of the layers, drawn in 4B pencil of 'Twits'

What is your earliest recollection of making a print and what made you to want to do more?
Creating little rubber stamp letters at school is my earliest print memory. In recent times, simply seeing the wealth of print talent in Bristol alone is such an inspiration for any budding print-maker. Since moving here, I've been enjoying learning new techniques from masters in this craft.

What inspires you and are there any themes or ideas that often run through your work? 
Colour is an obvious inspiration. I often draw on themes of optical illusions and geometrical shapes, as well as my long-term fascination with bird-life, nature and texture. I also love expressions and dark fairy stories.

12 Bikes - A 12 colour screen-print

Could you give us an insight into where you work – your studio/workspace and where you print? 
I have been part of setting up the Drawn in Bristol studio and print studio space, which is situated inside the Hamilton House building in Stokes Croft. Drawn in Bristol occupies a large area of one of the floors with over 20 people working within a lovely open plan space. I create all my work and print work from this studio, as well as inducting new members of the print studio into the space.

Printing 'Twits' in the Drawn in Bristol studio

Wrestlers, in the print rack, at the studio

The work of which other printmaker/s do you admire? 
Too many! But if I have to be specific, Simon Tozer, Hannah McVicar and Paul Farrell - all Bristol print-makers - have been a long-term source of advice, inspiration, support and general loveliness. Please check their work out. Hannah is also currently part of The Print Shop.

Printmaking is made up of lots of different processes, which aspect do you enjoy the most? 
I think it's the puzzle of working out what should be on each layer of a multi-layer print. I've always liked puzzles!

Tracing paper layers for my bird cards

Do you have a favourite tool or something you find invaluable when printing? 
I purchased two mini-squeegees in India, which I love using, when it's appropriate as they are so light-weight and fit well on the lip of the screens I use. Acetate is invaluable when I'm working out registration.

Can you share a little printing trick or secret with us? 
I always try to not print when tired - too many mistakes happen otherwise. Music is really important to me and having a good sound-track when printing can often help focus my mind. I've recently been getting into Forest Swords.



How would you like to develop your printmaking skills in the future? 
There's always more to learn and to improve on - I love discovering new tricks. I often feel like I'm at the start of a fun print-making journey and am excited about what's next. I definitely want to challenge myself by creating some much larger prints.

Raven Skull, 2-colour A2 screen-print.

Which printed publication do you most look forward to thumbing through?
Juxtapoz is always interesting, as well as Digital Arts. I really enjoy the free comic compilation Off Life too.


Monochrome or multi-coloured?
Multi-coloured mostly.


Thank you Dave for giving us an insight into the working process behind your colourful screen-prints. Particularly fascinating to see the drawings behind the work.

Dave will be at The Print Shop for the rest of Volume 3 with all of the above work for sale (while stocks last!).

The Print Shop

Unit 6

Quakers Friars

Cabot Circus

Bristol

BS1 3BU

Open Daily

Mon - Sat 10am - 6pm

Sun 11am - 5pm