Janis Goodman has been a printmaker for over ten years, creating etchings and aquatints, which reflect her architectural training and her love of the vitality of her home in inner city Leeds . Her prints are preoccupied with the repetitive patterns formed by roofs, windows and chimney pots and how they contrast with the organic forms of plants and birds, themes also inherent in her work.

Janis's prints are exceptionally detailed and astoundingly atmospheric as she uses the technique of aquatint to give tone and shading to the prints. Her expressive mark making and unique drawing style give us a real sense of the environment she is portraying and one with which we can associate with. The uniformity of brick terraced buildings are broken up with the existence of people living in the city and is shown through details like lines of washing hung out to dry or allotments with growing food and flowers.

Having her own print studio in her home means inspiration is always at hand as she explores inner city life around her. Each etching is made from a polished zinc or copper plate which is covered in a thin layer of wax called a ground. Janis then works into the plate with the images she has in mind by scratching through to the metal with sharp tools, which allow her unique drawing style and expressiveness to come through. The plate is then placed in a shallow dish of diluted acid for ten minutes whereby the drawn lines are deeply etched or bitten by the acid. The plate is then ready to ink up and to take prints from using a heavy print press. This process produces a line drawing. The real atmosphere of the work is created by a technique called Aquatint. Through this process Janis is able to create areas of tone, an element that creates such an ambience and life to her prints.

A must see exhibition of an exceptionally talented printmaker illustrating inner city life in Leeds .