Discovering the joy of the unexpected
In our fast-paced imagesaturated digital world, it’s easy to forget that artists are experts in slow art.
No more so than when setting out to create an original print, be that an etching, linocut, monoprint or screenprint.
As most artists will testify, things can fall apart at any given point in the process. But it’s this tension between success and failure which makes it so special.
In a new exhibition at Fidra Fine Art in Gullane, titled simply Printmaking, gallery owner Alan
Rae, showcases seven Scottish printmakers – Georgina Bown, Alfons Bytautas,
June Carey, Hetty Haxworth, Henry Jabbour, Robert Powell and Jane Walker. I’ve found myself returning time and time again to the joyously blocky yet sensitively realised linocuts of Perthshirebased Jane Walker.
Jane has recently returned to her first love of printmaking after a career spent in graphic design. She confesses that the chance element of printmaking added to the frisson of excitement felt in creating her linocuts.
“Linocuts require simplification of pattern, shape and structure which encourages a graphic approach to imagemaking,” she explains.
“The reduction technique uses the same block for all layers. There is no going back once the lino has been cut. You never quite know how it is going to turn out!”
There is so much to savour in this small exhibition. I was particularly taken with former medical scientist turned artist Henry Jabbour’s emotionallycharged etchings. Like his paintings, the figure is central to the work.
Meanwhile, Hetty Haxworth mines an ongoing fascination with the landscape near her home in rural Aberdeenshire, distilling shapes on water, fields, fences and skies into what she calls “a moment in colour”.
Printmaking continues at Fidra Fine Art in Gullane until April 10.