Master Printmakers
4th November 2017 - 24th February 2018
"There are very few galleries who champion the art of printmaking as visibly and with as much passion as the Craft Centre and Design Gallery in Leeds." Mychael Barratt
Image: Roger Harris mezzotint
The skills of master printmakers are explored in this beautiful group exhibition of etchings, mezzotints, linoprints, screenprints, collagraphs, drypoints and woodcuts by some of the most celebrated printmaker’s of our time. Featuring 16 printmakers; some established and who we’ve had the pleasure of working with for the past 35 years and those that we've recently discovered.
Anita Klein - master of linocuts
Anita studied at Chelsea and the Slade schools of art. She works in London and Anghiari, Italy and has exhibited her prints and paintings extensively in the UK, Europe, the USA and Australia. In 2003 she was elected president of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers and she has work in many private and public collections including the Arts Council England, the British Museum and the V&A. Anita’s work celebrates the small domestic moments we all share. She says that these everyday events are what she would miss most “if it all was taken away”. While family photo albums record our lives as one long round of birthdays and holidays, the very moments we should most value are almost always ignored and forgotten. Anita’s prints are often used as sketches for large oil and acrylic paintings which are exhibited regularly in London and elsewhere by Eames Fine Art and Advanced Graphics London.
“I am delighted and honoured to be invited to exhibit in this 35th anniversary exhibition. I have exhibited prints at the Craft Centre and Design Gallery for probably 30 of those 35 years, and the gallery staff and director encouraged me from the very beginning of my career soon after leaving art school. It has always been a privilege to show my prints alongside their selection of talented artists and makers.”
Trevor Price - master of drypoint etchings
Trevor specialises in drypoints and relief prints. He shares his time between a studio close to Tower Bridge in London, and the other in the heart of the artist community of St. Ives in Cornwall. He studied at Falmouth and Winchester Schools of Art and at the age of 28 was elected a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers and is currently the societies Vice President. His work is held in various collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford), Guangdong Museum of Art (China), Yale University (USA) and The Bank of England. He has won several national printmaking awards with the most recent being the Printmaking Today Award at the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers 2017 exhibition. Trevor's artworks usually represent the intimacy between a couple, sometimes romantic, sometimes erotic and often humorous. Location is be a big influence in the work, and his Cornish roots often feature.
“A gallery that recognises and promotes original printmaking in this digital age of mass reproduction is a rare thing. I am delighted to have been associated with them for many years....and hopefully many more to follow!”
Mychael Barratt - master of etchings
Mychael was born in Toronto, Canada and has been living and working in the UK since 1984. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers and was the commissioned artist for the Globe Theatre throughout Mark Rylance’s reign as Artistic Director. Mychael’s prints not only display his own unique style, but his subject matter captures the imagination by lifting scenes and characters that have become famous through the ages. Mychael's print for this show called Urban Myths IX - Bob Dylan Lost in Crouch End, relates to an incident where Bob Dylan turned up at Dave Stewart's studio but got the address wrong. He arrived at another address where another person named Dave lived. Dave's wife ushered him in to the kitchen for a cup of tea to wait for the arrival of the wrong Dave.
“I am delighted and honoured to have been selected to be part of their 35 year anniversary exhibition. This series has become like a celebration of etching for me. This particular print has hard ground, soft ground, aquatint, drypoint, sugarlift and spit-biting; virtually every intaglio technique possible."
Louise Davies - master of etchings
Louise is a professional artist and a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. Her etching and collagraph prints depict landscapes with a vibrant use of colour and a fluid line. Louise studied for a BA in fine art at St Martins and has an MA in printmaking from Camberwell. She now works in a studio in South London fulltime as a professional artist. Her work is exhibited throughout galleries in the UK and she also has works in permanent collections. The print pictured is called Shadows on the Moors and was created as part of a series of works that Louise made on the Yorkshire Moors. “I visited the Moors in the Spring and drew preparatory drawings in my sketch book as I looked out across them. The day was sunshine and cloud and thus created shadows forming on the landscape.” Louise tries to work with light and dark areas on the etching plate and thus with the use of colour start to build up pools of colour and light. The collagraph often provides structure and for this print gives a roughness and texture to the work which is reflective of the Moors themselves.
“I have been showing with The Craft Centre for many years now and have found them to be a great gallery to be represented by. I feel they try hard to promote my work and are always very professional. I feel we have a good working relationship and hope we can continue with this into the future.”
Roger Harris - master of mezzotints
Roger studied at Kingston College of Art and then specialised in printmaking at Richmond College of Art. He developed an interest in mezzotint printing and was quickly recognised as an artist with exceptional talent. He has recently exhibited at The Mall Galleries, The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and The Royal West of England Academy. “I drew from an early age; I drew on the wallpaper, on the windows with my mother’s lipstick and in the margins of books, which was my introduction to the idea of a printed picture on a page. Though I have drawn for as long as I can recall, it has taken me a very long time to learn to see. Drawing is about seeing, about acquiring a language of marks that makes the world visible.” Roger’s mezzotints are created on copper plates that he hand rocks with a tool called a mezzotint rocker (a curved blade with up to 120 sharp teeth along its edge) these throw up a tiny burr when rocked into the copper plate. Each little burr will hold the ink to the surface which gives a deep richness to the image when printed. An image is achieved by his drawing being scraped and burnished into the plate with a small knife and round burnisher to produce the lights (whites) and half-lights (greys) in the work, into a black ground. With coloured images Roger does a separate plate for each colour, up to four plates.
"I believe one of the beauties of printmaking with its multi-imagery is the shared experience and enjoyment that it gives to a wide audience. The Leeds Craft Centre and Design Gallery with its wonderful staff have been a great help for printmakers including myself over a good many years, with their enthusiasm for my work. This 35 year celebration is a wonderful landmark in the story of the Gallery and it is a huge delight to be part of it. Thank you."
Stuart Brocklehurst - master of linocuts
Stuart is an artist printmaker working in Calderdale in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Whilst landscape and wildlife are recurring themes in his bold and colourful linocut prints he doesn’t consider himself to be either a landscape or a wildlife artist. Being happy to tackle any subject Stuart feels will make an interesting or challenging print. For him printmaking, especially making a reduction linocut, is like a puzzle, but one with a certain element of surprise. For all the planning and working out that is done beforehand, there is no certainty about the outcome of the finished image.
" My association with the gallery began at a time when my work had taken a radical change of direction from painting to printmaking. To have my work accepted and promoted by such a prestigious institution was a real boost to my confidence. To now be invited to take part in this 35 year anniversary show is a real pleasure and honour.”
Janis Goodman - master of etchings
Janis has worked as a printmaker in Leeds for over twenty years. She started printmaking at an evening class at Leeds College of Art and Design and felt straight away that etching was the technique that she liked best. After years of evening classes and using friends' presses she set up a studio in her own house where she continues to print from creating her beautiful etchings of the world around her, both in the city and out in the countryside. With a background in architecture Janis has always enjoyed observing and recording the structure of inner city Leeds where she lives. Using etching and aquatint in combination allows Janis to play with texture and detail. Janis’s pictures are small narratives; compositions in which different elements meet and interact. The choice of subject matter is often visceral; Janis gets a particular feeling that this is the view, the collection of shapes, which feels right and which she wants to reassemble. Janis knows the ideas she has placed within the etching but it is up to the viewer to find their own story.
"The Craft Centre and Design Gallery taught me about printmaking long before I became an etcher. Indeed, looking through the always enticing racks was one of the factors which made me learn printmaking in the first place. I continue to forage through the print racks in the gallery to find visual nourishment and that makes me especially pleased to be included in this exhibition.”
Tim Southall - master of screen prints
Tim grew up on the edge of the heavy industrial heartlands of the Black Country and went on to study Fine Art at Northumbria University. His printmaking journey started at Royal College of Art and l’école des beaux art, Paris. Based in London for twenty years, Tim now splits his time between his studio in Cadiz and the UK. The base upon which he builds his work is metaphysics: existence, objects and their properties, space and time, cause and effect, and possibility. Using these guides, he expresses how he sees and experiences the world. This he does mostly through the landscape or the figure in the landscape. Over and above the metaphysical, he strives to make work which is delicate and shows a lightness of touch along with an eye for detail and nuance. At the same time he uses the language of drawing and mark-making in an attempt to describe emotional depth and atmosphere. The resulting works are rarely direct representations or specific places but distillations of various places and experiences. Tim is an active member of the Printmakers Council and exhibits regularly with them. He is also a member of East London Printmakers and Birmingham Printmakers where he produces his silkscreen prints.
“I am so thrilled to have been invited to participate in this exhibition of Master Printmakers, marking the milestone 35th Anniversary of the Craft Centre in Leeds. Like so many other artists, my working day is mostly a solitary one where I hone my art before presenting it to the public with little knowledge of how it will be perceived. I am fortunate to receive such strong support from the Craft Centre in Leeds, which is so vital in nurturing my creativity, and I look forward to this continuing and only becoming stronger.”
Zena Parker - master of linocuts
Zena’s recent work documents her move to Sheffield and the surrounding areas, taking inspiration from landmarks. She creates each small edition of prints herself in Sheffield. Her main inspiration has always been the natural world, having grown up in the Somerset countryside. While studying in London she looked for pockets of nature within the urban landscape. Her focus is on patterns in nature, this brings a decorative quality to her work. Zena discovered lino printing while at the University of the Arts in London; it sparked her imagination, enjoying the hours of careful cutting, the layering process and the instant nature of revealing a printed design.
“I am honoured to be a part of the 35th year anniversary of Leeds Craft Centre. Having only started to sell my print work in recent years, I feel truly encouraged by the confidence that the team at the gallery has in me. Being given the opportunity to display my lino prints among such talented Printmakers is a real mark of recognition and I am very grateful. The fact that The Craft Centre Leeds encourages local and emerging Artists in this way, is one of the reasons it has been thriving for so long.”
Suzie MacKenzie - master of collagraphs
Suzie MacKenzie studied Fine Art at Loughborough University where her interest in printmaking as a fine art medium first began. On relocating to the Scottish Highlands she enrolled at the Highland Print Studio where she was able to progress her skills, specifically in collagraph, which subsequently became her medium of choice. Suzie’s work describes the landscape of the far north-eastern highlands of Scotland often employing atmospheric colour through the use of chine collé to communicate the beauty and mystery of moments and places. It reflects a long-term personal connection with the landscape and exists primarily as a subjective response to the place’s continuing story, topography and structures; yet whilst each image attempts to capture a particular location at a fleeting moment of individual significance, there is also at its heart an endeavour to share a universally recognisable experience. With all its atmospheric possibilities, collagraph printmaking seems the most suitable means of conveying the beauty and mystery of these moments and places.
“I was delighted and honoured to be asked by the Craft Centre and Design Gallery to take part in their ‘Master Printmakers’ 35th anniversary show. As with most artists, it is important to me that my work reaches as wide an audience as possible, and living and working in the far north of Scotland presents particular difficulties in this respect. The attitude of the staff has at all times been thoroughly professional whilst at the same time supportive and friendly. My continuing relationship with the gallery has helped me to benefit from a best-of-both-worlds scenario; living and working in a distant part of the country that sustains and inspires my work, yet having the opportunity to showcase it in a delightfully unique and highly-regarded gallery in a major populated city centre.”
Jason Hicklin - master of etchings
Jason studied at St. Martins College of Art where he was a student of the renowned printmaker Norman Ackroyd. After completing a postgraduate course at the Central School of Art in 1991, he combined working as Ackroyd's studio assistant and editioner with producing his own work. Jason's etchings capture the feel of the weather and its effect on the landscape. All Jason's work is begun outdoors. Carrying the minimum of equipment, he will walk and climb the desired area for days and sometimes nights, usually in extreme weather. Jason describes working outdoors in these tense and exciting conditions as a tremendously connecting experience; feeling a part of the land itself. The result is a striking record of the elemental collisions between earth, sea and weather. His work is charged with an atmosphere born of an intimate knowledge of the landscape and a direct physical experience of its changing moods. Jason was elected a member of the Royal Society of Painters and Printmakers in 1993.
“My initial contact with The Craft Centre and Design Gallery was in 1999, when I was invited to show a number of etchings I had made in the North of England. I've always recognised the importance of showing my work in and out of London, the CC&D Gallery offered me a perfect opportunity to do so.
My experience with the Gallery has always been a positive one, my work has been treated thoughtfully and with respect, allowing me to do what I do, make etchings and the Gallery to do what they do, and enable the public of Leeds to see and own art. Thank you for your invitation to show work in this celebration of thirty five years of the Craft Centre and Design Gallery.”
Karolina Larusdottir - master of etchings
Karolina was born in Reykjavik, Iceland. She lived and worked in the British Isles from the mid-sixties for nearly fifty years. Today Karolina now lives back in her homeland of Iceland. Karolina studied contemporary art at Sir John Cass College, London, the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford and Barking College of Art. In 1986 she was elected a member of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers (RE) and the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) in 1996. Karolina's unique vision of both her homeland and England have won her a deservedly high reputation in the fields of contemporary British printmaking. Many of Karolina’s contemporary prints are rooted in her upbringing in Iceland. Her Grandfather was the owner of the first grand hotel in Reykjavik. Glimpses of this busy environment, scenes of chambermaids, chefs and waitresses in the kitchen are engagingly evident. She remembers the Iceland of her childhood as a country barely touched by the modern world. “It was a very austere place, and nobody could do anything without other people knowing. There was no television, so occasions- parties, birthdays, being invited to people’s homes were very important, and people were very aware of dress, stance and behaviour.”Karolina’s work appears in many private and corporate art collections, including The Vatican, Rome and HRH Queen Elizabeth.
“It has been an honour to show my work at The Craft Centre over the last 18 years. The staff have been incredibly supportive and they obviously care deeply about the arts. They have created a wonderful space for all to enjoy. Their programme of exhibitions is always interesting and they exhibit highly individual works. It's a unique and inclusive gallery which embraces creativity and is never afraid to try something new. That's why I'm honoured and proud to be invited to take part in this important and exciting print exhibition.”
Sarah Harris - master of screen prints
Sarah’s work consists of limited edition screen prints that begin as pen drawings. A limited colour palette is used throughout to enhance the line work, adding depth and interest through placement and tone. Having graduated in 2005 with a BA (Hons) in Fashion Design Sarah had previously spent her career working within retail head offices. She rediscovered her love of drawing in 2011 through an evening course at Leeds College of Art, which also reintroduced her to printmaking. Sarah has always enjoyed the exploration of landscapes and she combines this curiosity of her surroundings with her practice, endeavouring to produce an image that brings you into the reality of that scene, whilst evoking a feeling of nostalgia and sense of discovery.
“It was a few months after I first began to sell my screen prints that I tentatively contacted the Craft Centre and Design Gallery about my screen prints, the very next day I had a response and a positive one! I never imagined so early on in my career that I would be selling my work in such a respected gallery, and alongside artists who I admired. Over the last five years I have seen how The Craft Centre and Centre are such fantastic ambassadors for the arts, supporting both new and established creatives from Yorkshire and further afield. One of the most exciting things for me as a visitor to the gallery is the changing displays and exhibitions they have to celebrate and promote their artists, there's always something new and fresh to see. Happy 35th Birthday and thanks to all the team for their support over the years!”
Jonathan Ashworth - master of woodcuts and wood engravings
Yorkshire printmaker Jonathan specialises in the production of traditional woodcuts and wood engravings. These are two closely related methods of printmaking that encourage feelings of other worldliness through the use of extremely fine and intricate marks. Each print method has a very distinctive appearance, but woodcut prints especially so, since they encourage the artist to work intuitively with the natural materials so as to bring out incredible subtleties of texture. Jonathan studied at the Royal College of Art, from where he graduated with first class honours in 2006, having previously completed a Fine Art undergraduate degree in Edinburgh. After exhibiting widely across the UK he won Young Artist of the Year 2012 at the Biscuit Factory (Newcastle). His work aims to meld the age-old sensibilities of the natural world with contemporary concerns of the city.
“Leeds Craft Centre and Design Gallery shows works that are carefully selected, and without fail I leave the shop feeling inspired!”
Piers Browne - master of etchings
Piers acquired a love of drawing and painting in early childhood scootering about in lanes (and painting the fields and hills) of Shropshire. After formal art training, he travelled alone and painted (and adventured) extensively in Europe and for a month central Africa, before settling in his adopted North Yorkshire in 1975. Wensleydale, especially from a height, affords amazing panoramic vistas, a major influence upon Piers’ life and work. Piers is an ardent colourist and this combination for capturing light with free brushwork has produced many exceptional oils and etchings, some regularly hung at the R A Summer show.
“This gallery has a most cheerful ambience and friendly staff and have always been so welcoming to me. It must be 25 years I have shown here and had a few solo shows, and their patrons have been steadily adding me to their collections over the years.”
Carry Akroyd - master of serigraphy/screen prints
Carry lives in the rich arable landscape along the valley of the River Nene. Her images examine the relationship between humans, landscape and wildlife. She embraces the philosophy of ‘ditch visionaries’ who seek out the exotic world of just down the road. Other inspirations include the Scottish highlands and islands. She likes to work with different forms of printmaking, “Predominantly, I enjoy a simple approach to serigraphy (screen printing) which concentrates on shape and colour. My linocuts are always just worked out in black and white as a contrasting discipline. More recently have been working on plate lithography, which makes far more use of drawn lines.” Carry is a member of the Society of Wildlife Artists and has an MA with distinction from the University of Northampton.
“Thank you for your invitation to show work in this celebration of thirty five years of the Leeds Craft Centre and Design Gallery. I was so pleased when first invited to show at the gallery, it felt like such an affirmation to be among so many wonderful printmakers. The gallery also introduced my work to a new audience, work in the gallery definitely has a wide exposure.”