"Printmaking is my way of sharing the views I have enjoyed and hoping that others will enjoy them too"
I spend a lot of time walking and cycling in the countryside around Inverness and my prints are often inspired by light on the landscape or wildlife glimpsed on these trips. Printmaking is my way of sharing the views I have enjoyed and hoping that others will enjoy them too. Just recently I was given a couple of pieces of art deco “Orange Tree” china and that has set me off in a different direction – incorporating vintage pieces and family treasures with mischievous birds – purely for pleasure.
I love the technical and craft challenges in producing Lino prints. I may lie awake at night thinking through the steps and colours needed, what to cut away from the lino and what to keep and how to get that red and that blue from the same sheet of lino but once it gets to cutting and printing, nerve racking though it may be, I find it absorbing and satisfying. Lino printing has been my chief way of expressing my creativity for about 20 years now but, due to the labour intensive process, I produce prints slowly. I also find that there is always more to learn. When using the press in the open access printmakers studio in Inverness I am frequently astonished by the results others can get from a simple sheet of lino, ink and paper. I have dabbled in wood engraving too and hope to return to this soon.
I find in difficult to make political points through my prints but hope that if you enjoy the landscape or wildlife portrayed then you will think it worth preserving and protecting them too.