Creating images through exploration and experimental printmaking.

I started my artistic journey many years ago as a freelance woven textile designer, designing and selling to the contract furnishing fabric trade. Now living in West Lancashire, I am at a point in my life when I have more time to devote to what I like doing best - creating images through exploration and experimental printmaking.

I work in equal parts from the distilled memory of a place and in response to the colour and pattern in my immediate environment, producing unique or very small editions of hand pulled prints. I am very fortunate to live in such a beautiful part of the country, with access to both the coast and wonderful inland countryside to serve as inspiration.

Printing, like weaving, has a lot of problem solving and practical considerations running alongside constructing and creating. I am particularly drawn to the experimental (and slightly unpredictable!) aspects of printing, using unusual materials and starting points to develop interpretations of the world around me. I enjoy the process of developing concepts or ideas, exploring variations and producing work in a series, which printing allows me to do easily. Documenting this journey of exploration is an important part of my work.

My prints are all handmade and individually inked, using a variety of printing techniques such as monoprint, drypoint, lino print and collagraph printing, using oil based inks on a variety of papers. I am most happy combining these technical skills with a ‘what would happen if’ approach, resulting in unique exciting investigations and outcomes. This can include folding, overlays, marbling or combining techniques. Currently I am experimenting with a variety of recycled plate materials (tetrapak packaging), as well as exploring layering of colour with printed acetate collage in a perspex block.

These individual prints may stand alone, or be part of a related series exploring a theme. The prints may be unique (1/1), part of a very small edition (1/3), or part of a small Variable Edition (V.E. 1/3). Occasionally, they may be part of an Open Variable Edition (O.V.E.) where I am exploring a theme in an ongoing closely related series, which I may return to over time.

My finished work can range from small cropped sections of prints, to individual handmade greeting cards, to one off prints (up to A3), to a limited edition of a print (usually 5 maximum).