It's so hard to know what to write in this first post. After a little reflection I have decided to try and take a snapshot of 'where I am now'. I thought that reflecting on and actually writing down all that has gone before would be useful. It will allow me to identify influences from my past which I have an inkling may be more important than I currently realise, I'd like to put it all in writing to allow me to further examine what has brought me to here, with the hope that this might help with my future direction.
Please forgive this being rather rambling, and my sounding like I'm blowing my own trumpet with my achievements; but I want to write honestly about what I feel proud of and what has worked, as well as what has frustrated me and what doesn't.
I have come to this MA in a slightly roundabout fashion despite coming from a creative family. My mother studied fashion design at CSM and was an art and photography teacher and my father has always created as a hobby, he's currently sculpting in the form of wood carving but has worked in stone in the past. I enjoyed art at school and completed both art GCSE and A level but I didn't continue to study art at a higher level, there was always a sketchbook lying about though. Instead, I completed 2 years of a BSc Psychology degree then switched to BA Maritime Leisure Management which I thoroughly enjoyed and worked hard enough to achieve a 1st class honours; my dissertation won a prize and was published. It drew on my previous psychology studies, applied to extreme sports.
Throughout university I worked in the tourism industry driving passenger boats on the Thames and afterwards managed a marina on Loch Lomond, Scotland. I met my husband sailing on the Clyde and 14 years ago we moved south to Bagshot, the village where we still live.
I taught Travel and Tourism in an FE college until our first child arrived 8 years ago. When the second child was little, I was desperate to do something for myself so began evening painting and drawing classes. This led to the Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at West Dean College starting in autumn 2018. This consists of short courses taken over 2 years with an essay element at the end. My very first course was screen printing, it was amazing! I then sought out further printmaking courses and in September 2019 (when the youngest child started preschool and the eldest started school) I could escape to do weekly printmaking classes at my local arts centre which has a printroom.
To start with I was very focussed on learning the processes and techniques and didn't have much specific imagery, I tended to use huge buckets of flowers I'd seen at West Dean, Norfolk beaches that I'd sketched or sea creatures such as an octopus or mackerel to depict without really having anything specific to focus on. I found it very frustrating having to come up with an image really quickly so as to be able to maximise my time in the studio, gradually I chose to focus on water and waves and did some preparation and design imagery so as to be more prepared for the studio time. I was 6 months into this when the first lockdown was announced, and the studio closed. The children were sent home and I became a full-time mum, teacher and guardian of the stairs so the children didn't disturb their dad working upstairs. All creating was put on hold, due probably to my feelings of complete despair at having the little freedom I'd carved out for myself snatched away (unless you count den building in the forest that borders the village and innumerable 'things' made out of cardboard boxes!), the upside was that we finally got a long-awaited puppy to complete our family.
As lockdown eased we now had a furry family member who needed a walk so our daily forest visits continued. I started taking a sketchbook with me and looked forward to the printroom reopening any my West Dean course resuming. I realised that in a way the break had done me good, I suddenly had all this forest imagery in my sketchbooks, I was also fascinated by how much was written and said about the importance of outdoor spaces and how attached people had become to certain landscapes they'd discovered as a result of the lockdowns and travel restrictions. It seemed to me that as a society we had suddenly become connected and emotionally attached to our landscape in a way we hadn't previously realised. I know as a family we'd really missed visiting Norfolk (we usually go several times between Easter and October half term). We planned a longer trip than usual as a summer holiday and really, really enjoyed the change of scenery but also being back in 'our' holiday landscape, I think we appreciated it all the more having not been allowed to visit it freely.
In the second lockdown of spring 2021 I was much more motivated to continue to work. I was also extremely angry at the schools being closed again, especially as pre-schools were open and the first year of school is the same curriculum. I couldn't understand the benefit to the children of staying at home; but I knew what my children were missing out on and could imagine the damage being done to those without two loving parents prepared to educate and stimulate them. I think I channelled my anger into something vaguely positive. We'd all be at the kitchen table by 9am and they'd get on with the work they were set while I cut lino and helped as needed once they'd finished, I'd commandeer the table and get the inks out. I'd been saving linocut to try as a technique at home rather than at the studio; lockdown, it turned out, was the perfect opportunity. We would walk in the forest in the late afternoon and so saw some beautiful sunsets and late afternoon light. It was this imagery that I focussed on, and I'll always consider my first 'Swinley Sunset' reduction linocut print as my 'breakthrough' print. I made 5 and sold them all within 30 minutes of posting a picture online, the card of that print is still one of my most popular. During that lockdown I made another sunset print and one looking at the misty effect of the spring light which was accepted for the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair last year. I felt like I was finding my feet and that there was something important about my connection to this particular landscape that local people understood.
In the summer I attended my final FDAD course: a week-long summer school linocutting course with Dale Devereux Barker. Here I worked in a completely different way. Dale advocates working on several prints at once, often using the same piece(s) of lino but rearranged and in different colours for each print so a series is created but not an identical edition, as I had been making at home. I adored this freedom. I used imagery from a previous course which had been focused on mark making and lines in the landscape and made more than 30 prints over the course of a week that took an initial mark making session, manipulated it, copied it, manipulated it further then transferred it to lino where it was again manipulated, then chine collé and colour was added. This really opened up a new approach which I used to make a series of small (10X10cm) prints for the Southbank Printmakers mini print competition 2021. Both the prints I entered were accepted and one won the overall prize. It was a combination of collagraph, linocut and monoprint that was made without any prior planning other than it would use lines and I wanted to use bright colours (having been inspired by Shelly Rhodes and her use of turquoise and orange). I relished the freedom this use of instinct and intuition allowed me.
I completed my FDAD in December 2021 and felt like over the course of that year I had come such an awfully long way. I'd discovered an imagery of the forest which I wanted to explore, but I'd also discovered a way of taking marks and manipulating them and working very freely to make work that although abstract had thought and meaning behind it. The exhibitions at the end of the year really marked a high point and motivated me to get creating ready for the following year.
I continued the theme of mixing techniques and started exploring different ways to mark lino, even taking a piece into the forest and using a homemade dip nib to draw in ink directly to it. The marks were fascinating and perfectly complimented the imagery of the pine trees I was developing. I experimented by combining it with a collagraph plate made of things foraged in the forest. I really enjoyed this direct connection to the forest that the print had. I realised I was starting to become more ambitious in what I wanted to achieve with my printmaking and that completing the FDAD was not going to be the end of 'study' for me.
One of the reasons I like printmaking so much is that it slows me down. I would churn out paintings so fast that I would never feel satisfied that I'd really worked on them, the technical complexities of printmaking make me stop and think about what I'm doing. I see a lot of people on social media and selling sites like Etsy who produce prints of popular imagery and probably make a lot of money doing so, but I decided early on that I wanted more than that, and I'm no good at making 'what will sell' - there's always someone else who's done it better and it's not satisfying. I make some hand printed cards as something 'different' but often use them as practise pieces for a larger print, or to try out a new technique or way of marking the lino (I still print the lino that went to the forest as a card). While I do sell online and at craft fairs (I have to pay for paper somehow!) I'd like to focus on making work worthy of art fairs and exhibitions. I dream of being accepted for the RA Summer Exhibition and eventually would like to be accepted as a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. I realise I'm one of those people that likes the validation I feel from these kinds of achievements. I see them as marking milestones in my artistic development and it pushes me and motivates me to strive for improvement. It was this kind of thinking that made me enrol on an additional course at West Dean called 'The Project Brief'. It's now a compulsory part of the FDAD but wasn't for me. For someone like me who has never been to art school it was invaluable as it introduced me to the idea of working to a brief, researching influences, presenting and critiquing findings and having a cohort to give and receive feedback. I'd been dabbling with the idea of an MA and this cemented the notion for me that I would never be satisfied until I'd done it. I think I was striving for a more 'professional' way of working, rather than just lurching from one idea to the next without actually really developing a piece of work as deeply as I could. I hope the structure, background thinking, reflection and reading required of work and study at Masters level will give me the discipline I want to develop my work further.
So, I have now spent the summer reading art books and amassed quite a collection of critical thinking and art theory books which, if I'm honest, I have done little but skimmed through. I feel slightly terrified at what I've let myself in for since I know that unlike an undergraduate degree I'm not going to be told what to do, but on the other hand I really struggle to get enthusiastic about making work that I'm not really 'into' (which is why I don't take commissions).
I want to delve into new areas of printmaking. I have invested in an etching press capable of printing something between A2 and A3 plates. I've been reading up about less toxic and more eco-friendly etching techniques and bought a small selection of materials to get started with this alongside caustic soda to try etching lino. Lithography is another area I'm desperate to try as the marks are so beautiful. I have come across poly-plate lithography and have bought the materials and had a go testing what marks might be possible.
I have been producing reduction linocuts and collagraphs and occasionally combining the two. I would like to continue to experiment with my forest imagery using new techniques and combining techniques to get some interesting marks. I also want to expand the influences I look at. I have a habit of becoming rather tunnel visioned and gravitating towards print exhibitions and landscapes. I selected a fine art course over a printmaking specific course because I wanted a cohort of students from as many different disciplines as possible, I also hope the international nature of the cohort will open up cultures, ways of looking and thinking about art and influences that I have not encountered before.
During the first online session I was thrilled to meet my fellow students and not disappointed by the geographical and cultural diversity amongst the group, it was so wide and varied - exactly what I was hoping for.
The three-minute introductions were daunting, but I found that conversation flowed easily and despite a range of ages, locations and nationalities we were all keen to find common ground and share a little of ourselves in the time we had. I know I can be very guilty of being too chatty and taking over a conversation, so I did my best to ask more questions and listen to the others rather than talk for too long about myself. During the session we were introduced to so much technology that I've never encountered before but can already really see the value. I love the community feel of Discord and the Miro whiteboard is great, I find I keep checking it as I'm really looking forward to finding out more about what everyone else makes and how they work and so many more things!
The discussion questions we did in small groups were fascinating, we talked about what helps and hinders our creativity and what makes for a healthy artistic environment. we only had 15 minutes to discuss the topics but managed to cover them all and I was interested that we all had similar thoughts about enough time being important but not necessarily enough space. We concurred that makers will make, no matter how large or small the space they have available, but that time was more important. We also all valued the input and opinion of others. I talked about the shared experience gained by using a print studio, but that time then becomes finite which is why I made the investment of a press in my kitchen. I do still plan to visit the print studio though, simply because I value the experience of working alongside other printmakers.
Right at the end we wrote down three words which summed up our feelings at that moment. I wrote excited, nervous and expectant. I felt very excited by having done the first session. The nerves were mainly feelings of 'will I be good enough?'. The feelings of expectancy centre around wanting to see what everyone else does and wanting to get started on our assignments.
Having written the story of how I got to this point I realise that the psychology degree I started all those years ago has definitely helped me along the way and so wasn't a waste of time, despite never being finished. I have an interest in how humans react to the world around them. My connection to the landscape and desire to be eco-conscious feeds into my art work. These are definitely areas to think on more deeply.
I'm now going to go and ponder the big questions:
What are my aims?
What do I want to discover?