The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
CUTTING EDGE
Internationally renowned printmaker Ian Phillips RCA features alongside Tayside and Fife creatives in a Dundee exhibition called Cutting Edge, writes Michael Alexander
Printmaking is a mysterious art form to many people. The magical transformation of metal, wood, stone and lino to create beautiful pictures takes hours of work and years of experience, and should never be confused with the commercial printing techniques used in mass reproductions. One man at the cutting edge of his craft is Ian Phillips RCA, an internationally renowned printmaker living in mid-Wales.
He has been working in hand-printed reduction linocut for more than 20 years.
He specialises in consecutive series of prints taken from drawings done while walking long-distance footpaths or exploring particular areas of interest.
His reduction lino and woodcuts, by their very nature, are low in edition, as each layer of the image can only be printed once, then being cut away making way for the next layer.
“A chance encounter with a small book of ‘Hiroshiges 53 stages of the Tokaido’ woodcuts, whilst studying illustration at Leicester Polytechnic, seduced me into the world of relief print from which I never escaped,” explains Ian.
“I’ve been trying to catch the delicate sensibilities of seasonal weather and the dramatic natural compositions of Japanese prints ever since.
“I taught myself lino cut reduction printmaking while working as a freelance illustrator in London.
“In 2001, I moved to Wales to concentrate on the landscape and becoming a better printmaker.
“I have now been working with lino for over 20 years and have exhibited widely across the country as well as at The Mall Galleries, London, and in Hong Kong and the US.”
Ian explains that he recently had a very inspirational residency to the Djumbunji print studio, Cairns, Australia, which has added an extra dimension to his printmaking and led to the work in the Bestiary series.
He has also been a demonstrator at Art in Action, Oxford, where he met Merlyn Chesterman, a chance meeting which led to the exciting collaboration that is Pine Feroda, and the production of the large-scale woodcuts for which Pine is becoming well known.
More recently Pine Feroda had a fascinating trip to The Purple Bamboo studio at the China Academy of Arts in Hangzhou, China.
They learned the art of Chinese water woodcut with Professor Wang Chao.
“My printing process today still starts with a walk and a sketchbook as it’s always done,” says Ian, who was elected to the Royal Cambrian Academy in 2010.
“Following lonely trails over empty hills, down twisting forests tracks, or along cliffside paths looking for complete compositions full of pattern and texture.
“Catching the subtleties of weather and the natural drama of the landscape, these line black and white drawings are then taken back to the studio, enlarged and traced on to a lino sheet.
“This is when the process becomes all about pattern. The print may begin as a simple scribble in a sketchbook but as soon as you start on the lino, the process becomes about gouging and cutting marks.
“These marks then become a picture through creating pattern, texture and decoration. Once the cutting is done, the work with ink, rollers and colour begins.”
Ian’s work features in an exhibition of printmakers called Cutting Edge, running at Gallery Q in Nethergate, Dundee, from August 28 to September 18.
Alongside Ian there is a selection of artists bringing together different printmaking techniques for enjoyment and appreciation.
From Tayside and Angus there is Liz Myhill RSW, Jean Martin RSW, John Johnstone, Anne Skinner, Anne Russell, Les Mackay and,
new to the gallery, Bob Ballantine and Jane Walker. From Fife, the exhibition features Hilke and Ian MacIntyre along with Joe Davie.
Meanwhile, from Edinburgh, there’s Cat Outram and Dylan Bell; and from Wales, Bob
Guy and Paul Croft TMP RE.