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OUR ARTISTS

Penny Hunt

Based in the Yorkshire Dales, Penny’s studio gives wide open windswept views of mountains, moorlands and mist; her work is about the little things that make up that landscape of freedom, the places where you feel the full force of wind and weather and find some perspective on life.
Her Fine Art degree, MA and many years teaching helped develop her paintings and printmaking, each material feeds back into the other, the layering, overprinting and intaglio techniques are present in all.

Water is a huge source of inspiration and the surrounding rivers and waterfalls also provide a great source of ideas, drawings are often developed into collagraph plates and printed, sometimes including elements of the landscape in the design but always trying to convey a feeling of atmosphere rather than detail.

Glenn Tomkinson

Born in 1944, Glenn has been making prints since his school-days. He now mainly works with aquatint sometimes combined with etching in which his youthful flirtation with abstraction informs his reaction to landscape. He produces small editions of up to 20 and generally works in a traditional manner using resin in an aquatint box on copper plates. It is the limitations and difficulties of printmaking which allow him to find the essential elements in the image. His work is mainly inspired by landscape and acknowledges the influence of the abstract in art while retaining a response to the visual stimulus of the world around us

Kim Tillyer

Living in “the last house on the mountain”, in the Lake District’s Newlands Valley, Kim Tillyer makes original pieces using Cyanotype, a forerunner of modern photography. Rare Cumbrian sunlight (or more reliably, a special UV light) is used to produce ethereal images in shades of blue, on paper and fabric. Hand embroidery and stitched elements represent the ways in which “stitch” can be used; to heal a wound, mend a garment, embellish or secure. A sense of place is an important recurring theme along with native flora & fauna and the security (or insecurity) of “home”. As well as framed work Kim uses her designs to produce greetings cards and statement lighting for the home.

Emma Swift Kirkman

I have a profound and emotional connection with nature and as an artist I draw Inspiration from my love of nature. I explore the countryside of Cumbria to gain inspiration for my work, the big skies, ancient woodland and high fells and the seasons. My work is influenced by experiences with wildlife, I am a self confessed bird nerd and spend a lot of time studying birds and other wildlife. I love all methods of printmaking but I get most satisfaction from linocut reduction, as I enjoy the building of layers and find that the carving of the block helps to give my work a 3D quality.

Sue Rowland

Dividing my time between the beautiful Kentmere valley and my Green Door studio in Kendal, I create prints to celebrate the natural world and stories from history and folklore. I create multi block lino prints with intricate design layouts using rich colours.

This year I am also taking part in the AA2A course at UCLAN to experiment combining different types of printmaking to tell the stories of Victorian women explorers. I am working with monoprint, screen print and relief print on paper and fabric with the addition of machine embroidery.

Ray Ogden

Ray is an Eden based illustrator printmaker creating print editions and book illustrations using natural media drawing programs.
Inspired by indigenous cultures worldwide and with a particular affinity with the art of Japan, his work playfully explores a shifting relationship between reality and graphic illusion.

Marion Kuit

Earlier work has used imagery from a variety of sources - scientific diagrams, distorted organic shapes, banal everyday items such as rubber gloves- all given a humorous twist with the intention of evoking a sense of puzzlement or unease. Hopefully, her fondness for Science Fiction is evident. Current work is experimental, combining stencils, with cut and etched lino to make varied images as she has become less interested in making editioned prints. Source material is anything that smacks of disintegration, currently torn packaging, melted plastic and abandoned industrial waste.

Elizabeth Shorrock

Elizabeth began in textiles which led onto artists' books. Gradually paper became more important than fabric and she developed a real urge to print.
She enjoys using a variety of printing techniques to suit the subject material but recent work has been inspired by research into Neolithic pottery undertaken as part of an MA module in Contemporary Art and Archaeology. She applied the techniques and patterns the Neolithic people used to decorate their pots to her collagraph plates and built up a whole library of samples which were then used to inform the plates for a series of work based on photos taken of Neolithic pottery fragments.

Polly Marix Evans

Polly’s work draws inspiration from myths, legends and fairy tales. Her strong female images are combined with stylised text to send an empowering message to the viewer, she often also includes wolves and dragons, moons, and wild winter trees in her work.

These dark prints frequently show bright dashes of colour, either printed before the main image or applied with a brush once the main linocut print is dry.

Polly’s recent ‘icon’ series sees her using gold ink and larger blocks of colour to print a rich trio of images, each woman becoming the goddess of her own message, each message something Polly herself aspires to.

Sarah Robley

Sarah read History of Art at the University of Cambridge then completed an MA in Medieval Studies at York University before turning to Printmaking. Sarah loves the individuality that medieval artists gave their animal subjects; medieval ‘marginalia’ and decorative art inspire much of her work. She also takes inspiration from the wildlife of the Lake District and from Folk Art. Working in a minimalist, illustrative style, Sarah loves the bold simplicity of line to which linocutting lends itself so beautifully. Sarah lives in the Eden Valley, Cumbria, with her Labrador, Quiver.

Jill Davis

Born in West Cumbria, Jill finds inspiration in her familiar local landscape; not necessarily the dramatic mountain views, but the churches, farms, houses, bridges and narrow twisting roads which she sees every day. A recent series of prints focused on nearby Whitehaven and its elegant Georgian architecture.
In her prints, she focuses on the graphic quality of each view and employs a mixture of relief techniques using both wood and lino blocks.

Vega Brennan

Vega’s work is wide-ranging and experimental. She is currently fascinated by the modularity and history of letterpress printing. The themes of value, connections and the object are important to her and her prints often involve hand-made paper, audience participation and play.

Vega manages Linden Print Studio, an open-access print studio near Carlisle. The Print Studio hosts printmaking workshops for people of all ages and abilities in etching, relief printmaking, collagraph, letterpress, monoprinting and monotype. The studio provides professional equipment and facilities with a focus on safer and sustainable printmaking. Vega also runs artist development courses, outreach days and projects for schools and organisations.

Linda Moore

Linda’s interdisciplinary degree in Fine Art was gained at Carlisle, Cumbria, specialising in printmaking. Based in Whitehaven, her artwork evolves from personal experience, whether it be through photography, printmaking, film or painting. Currently she is exploring the effects of stone lithography.

Janis Young

After my Masters Fine Art Degree, Glassworking and Printmaking became the most important artforms in my studio practice.

My current work responds to the natural environment and fragile wildlife of the Eden Valley in Cumbria, raising questions about an ‘after life’ for animals.

While some people believe that only humans have an everlasting spirit, there are cultures where the spirits of animals are an important part of their belief system.

I am fascinated by the ephemeral nature of butterflies and wonder if they comprehend their transition in death. Do their ghosts still settle on the flowers that they no longer need?

Alison Marrs

Based in the Solway Plain, Alison is inspired by the natural world all around, by the space and the light, the landscapes, wildlife and the people. Colour is the dominant interest in everything she does and a recurring interest is the peculiar challenges of representing people and figures

A graduate of Edinburgh College of Art, and former teacher, Alison varies her work through painting, printmaking, and ceramic jewellery, each enthusiasm feeding the others, trying to convey a spirit of discovery, a different way of seeing in a familiar situation.

Geraldine Walkington

Geraldine is an artist printmaker based in Kendal. She experiments with printmaking techniques and found objects to create very personal images.

Her work captures moments of her journeys in the Alps, fellrunning in the Lakes and random intriguing possibilities in everyday scenarios.

Mark A Pearce

Mark grew up in Cumbria where he trained at Carlisle College of Art, progressing to The Norwich School of Art. After a very successful career as a graphic designer in London, Mark moved back to Cumbria in 2006. He works from his Ravenglass home, creating vibrant contemporary landscapes using a variety of media: watercolour, gouache, pastels and oils. He is also an accomplished Printmaker creating colourful original wood and linocuts. Mark’s work sells internationally and throughout the UK. *The BBC has featured his work as a designer of the 80’s & 90’s and more recently as a Printmaker.

Dorothy Ramsay

Dorothy fell for printmaking while at Camberwell School of Art, especially etching. Michael Rothenstein convinced her to play experimentally with mono printing using found objects and since then she has revisited printmaking often throughout her life, prints informing her paintings and visa versa. She is currently working on etchings of the coastline, which are to be part of an exhibition of prints in Iceland with a reciprocal exhibition in Scotland.

Printmaking is full of surprises as until you turn over the paper you never totally know the result.

Andrea Kershaw

Andrea’s degree in Fine Art stimulated her interest in printmaking. Drawing, painting and photography on location form the basis of her primary research and her practice has developed with interest of notions of the mountainous landscape and its interpretation. As with the strata of the landscape, her journey to her outcome of printmaking has allowed her to layer the landscape metaphorically and physically within her work, expressing her reaction and experience to a place. The evoked emotions of the landscape, are depicted in her investigation and translation of the vista using a multi-disciplinary approach incorporating photography, print-making and textiles.

Christine Hurford

Chris looks at lives ignored or disregarded by others, often using insects and other small creatures as a means of conveying these deeper feelings.

Since graduating with a first class honours degree in ceramics and fine art in 2007, she has shown her work throughout the country, sometimes outdoors and often in

unusual places or historic buildings. Drawing and painting are a great love and recently printing- on ceramic, textiles and more traditionally on paper.

Pen-y-ghent, dry point print, (website).

David Sharps

Dave Sharps is a retired art teacher who taught art for over 30 years in secondary education but now has the time and space to develop his own work. He has his own purpose built studio in his garden in Natland. His work is inspired by the beautiful landscape of Cumbria. Through paint, mixed media and printmaking he explores the experience of being on the fells, of walking in the valleys and along the coast. He uses colour and texture to represent the changing and dynamic weather and light conditions. He works mainly from sketches and his own photographs of the landscape. The style of his work ranges from representational to abstract.

Dawn Mills

Dawn is a multimedia artist based in St Bees, Cumbria. She takes inspiration from the natural surroundings around her as well as from her extensive travel. This is reflected in the layering and overlapping of a combination of figurative imagery with painterly expression.
The process of Dawn’s work blends several printmaking techniques. She uses a mono-print approach to creating complex and unique one of a kind works on paper. Through multi layering different printmaking techniques (such as linocut, dry point, collagraph,screen print, lithography and mokulito) she achieves rich layers of colour, pattern and imagery. This process allows her the freedom to experiment while reflecting her eclectic interests.

Marie Wright

My work is inspired by the land and marks left by man that hints at layers of change within the landscape. I use a variety of printmaking techniques in which I combine screenprinting and collagraph and aim to reflect the frail nature of that landscape. I am often inspired by the surroundings close to my studio at Morecambe Bay, near Ulverston and explore its fragility and its changing nature.

Raymond Higgs

Raymond Higgs 1940-2017

Raymond’s wood engravings use the ‘cut and come again’ or Reduction Method of making prints, where the editioning of the first colour is completed and made finite by the recutting of the same block to produce the second and subsequent colours. Alternative names are ‘waste-block’ printing, or ‘suicide printing’ because of the risk involved. In this little used method of making prints the size of the edition is more strictly limited than other ways of making prints as the block is progressively destroyed. All prints are in editions of about 20 to 140 including all proofs.

Denise Mason

Denise has always been interested in art and creating. Having gained a BA(Hons) Fine Art Degree De Montfort University she specialised for many years in Screen Printing. Since then her work has continued to evolve.

Living and working from her studio at Thackmire surrounded by fields and woodland has inspired her to work closely with nature. Printing directly with plants, flora and fauna and also making natural inks and dyes, fascinated by their properties

and what can be achieved.

Denise has exhibited widely in exhibitions and galleries across the UK. Her work can be found in private collections in UK, Germany, Cyprus and USA.

Karen Lester

Karen enjoys working with a range of painting and drawing media, and printmaking techniques.

Her interest in printmaking developed at Kendal College whilst completing her Foundation Degree in Drawing. She finds the quality of the marks produced particularly fascinating and her interest lies particularly with collagraph, drypoint, mono print, gum arabic and etching techniques.

Karen is also an experienced qualified art tutor, teaching for large organisations such as the Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal, as well as running classes for private groups and individuals.

Greywalls Studio, Lindale, has recently become her studio home, a perfect creative base in lovely Cumbria

Caroline Stow

Caroline Stow’s work is rooted in an interest in ecology and our absolute reliance on the natural world.

She uses printmaking (etching, etched lino and collagraph) to make and remake images, forming and dissolving connections across a picture plane. She is interested in making as an explorative process, which melds together materiality and slow thinking. Testing form and line intuitively, she will often spend several weeks developing and refining a series of etching plates, before experimenting further with the mechanics of the printing process.