Printmakers
Helen Brown
I am a woodcut printmaker based in Sussex. My work is centred around the South Downs as it is my home and great love, although I am open to commissions.
I draws directly from the landscape onto wooden blocks, and then carve into the blocks which are then used to create the prints. All of my work is handmade and each one of the pieces is given individual life though chine colle (paper overlay) and hand tinting, just as the mood of a scene shifts with light, time and experience. I spends time in the places my work depicts, returning to them. My prints are imbued with the emotion of place. Working outdoors enables me to connect with the spirit of the place, capturing the line and fluidity of scenes and localities. |
Ian O Halloran
I originally trained as a Civil Engineer but decided there were enough roads and bridges in the World and left to study art in 1990. I moved to a rural location in 1994 and gradually found my "voice" by being inspired by the landscape and artists such as Paul Nash, Eric Ravilious and Robert Tavener. I had my first solo exhibition of paintings in 1999/2000.
In 2008 I took up printmaking and this now forms the main part of my practice I have always been inspired by the landscape and am particularly drawn to ancient places that show marks and signs of earlier cultures (standing stones, hill figures, dew ponds and track ways) and try to capture a sense of my emotional connection with a location |
Adele Scantlebury
My official art education ended in 1987 with a BA Hons in Ceramics from Farnham (WSCAD). I was then fortunate enough to find work in Sussex, making traditional finials and floor tiles. It was during this time that I explored working with woodblock printing.
I really enjoyed the simplicity of the process; instead of a press, using the back of a wooden spoon and a lot of elbow grease! Peeling the paper off the block for the first time is always a magic moment as the picture is revealed. A mirror image of the piece of wood I have been carefully chipping away at for days. |
Liz Toole
Keith Petitt
Keith lives and works in his native Sussex. Driven by his life long urge to create, his artistic output takes many forms. An incredibly accomplished wood engraver, achieving increasing critical and commercial success.
Over arching all his various strands of work is a clear, keen empathy for his natural surroundings, tapping into the intimate knowledge we have gathered in the evolving interaction with our natural environment, often utilizing this knowledge in much of his work. www.keithpetitt.co.uk Charlotte Matthews |
In my recent work, I have been creating imaginary scenes filled with the patterns of nature inspired by both the Sussex countryside and the diversity of life I found whilst travelling in Africa. I am interested in looking at details of trees and plants, Indian textiles and bird encyclopaedias, and merging these sources to create, wall-paper like patterns that celebrate the English decorative tradition.
My latest prints has been hand-made in small editions , in Brighton, using the techniques of lino-cutting and screen-printing. I use special printmaking papers from the U.K, France, Japan and India. Within my work as a whole, I use nature as a metaphor for human emotions |