Members in the 2021 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

We are delighted to announce that two of our members have had work selected for this prestigious exhibition.

Jane Stothert has her print 'In Isolation, Anglesey in 2020' selected this year. It is her response to feeling isolated especially during the first stages of lockdown. She has been chosen by Yinke Shinobare to show in the rotunda room.

 

 The screen print has been created exposing flat shapes to the screen and reduction printing. 

 

For a long time she was unable to visit Wales. Usually the sea is full of sailing boats, but during Covid only a few sailing boats went out and there was no racing.

 

  

Theresa Pateman’s stunning Selkies print has also been selected!  

'Underwater Selkies'

In Celtic and Norse mythology, selkies (also spelled silkies, sylkies, selchies) or selkie folk (Scots: selkie fowk) meaning 'seal folk' are mythological beings capable of therianthropy, changing from seal to human form by shedding their skin.

Many congratulations to them both!  😊😊

                                               

THERESA PATEMAN   

My latest studio visit for this series of profiles takes me to a quiet, leafy back street in north-west London. It’s an unlikely setting for the former factory which houses the studios of Kingsgate Workshop Trust.  There are artists working in many media here; painting, ceramics, film, jewellery, sculpture, carpentry, framing and textiles. 

 

Theresa Pateman is a highly accomplished printmaker with a cv including linocut illustration, editioning for other artists and running a silkscreen workshop.  In this spacious, airy studio she practices a range of etching techniques including hard and soft ground and aquatint.

 

 

 

 

                            Beach Bodies - Photo Etching Aquatint softground

She is passionate about her own printmaking ‘It’s as highbrow as science and chemistry, yet it’s also alchemy…almost a dark art, never fully knowable…’  Her work has been exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Mall Galleries, the Barbican and the V&A, amongst many others

The studio houses both her presses and she holds workshops here, currently for just two people at a time due to social distancing requirements. This sounds like rather a luxury for the lucky participants.  Theresa also teaches at Hampstead School of Art and clearly enjoys the interactions with her students and the way their individual approaches can send her off in different directions in her own practice.   

 

                              Theresa demonstrating at Southbank Printmakers

 

On the day of my visit, Theresa demonstrates how to print an etched image with chine-collé.  This technique became popular in 18^th C Britain when a wide variety of papers began to be imported from Asia. The image is printed onto a fine paper glued onto a heavier paper support, giving additional texture and possibly colour.

Theresa starts by soaking Somerset paper and then squeezing out the excess water before putting it between blotting paper.

 

 

 

The plates shown here have been etched with soft and hard ground techniques, and have been inked up in a single colour, in this case, black.

A small sheet of torn edged Lokta paper from Nepal, (traditionally made from the inner bark of a high elevation evergreen shrub), is rolled with PH neutral glue on the rough side. 

 

 

The plate is laid ink side up on the print bed, then the Lokta paper sticky side up, followed by the support paper, and finally a layer of tissue for protection, before winding through the press. 

 

 

The chine-collé method adds colour and texture to the image, while only involving a single plate.

Like many of us this year, Theresa has found her thoughts turning to the beach.  So it is convenient that she has begun teaching workshops in Pembrokeshire. The unspoilt beaches around Broadhaven have inspired a series of atmospheric images, taking her in a new direction:

                           Beach buddies - Photo Etching Aquatint softground

She says ‘Water patterns and sandy textures are a current feature in my prints, but above all the escape into imagined underwater worlds. I love looking at rock pools and watching the life within.  ‘

These two beautiful prints, Swimming Skelpies and Underwater Skelpies combine a photo transfer etching plate for the watery textures with an aquatinted plate using stencils for the figures.  

 

                                 Underwater Skelpies and Swimming Skelpies 

The photo transfer process breaks down the image quite a lot, and the eventual image for the plate is often a combination of several transfers. 

Achieving the soft edges of the figures on the aquatint plate involves a lot of delicate work around the stencils. As ever with printmaking, there is a high degree of unpredictability in the process.  

 

                                          The two plates for the Skelpies

The complexity and subtlety achieved in just two layers demonstrate Theresa’s skill and sensitivity. ‘I love the discovery of a different medium…it’s never-ending… all the ancient skills mix with the new…’ 

Theresa has also responded creatively to the limitations imposed by the pandemic, by beginning to teach Zoom.  She is currently running a project in dry point. She sends a batch of materials to the student, who then makes the dry point image and returns it by post, indicating where textures are required.  Theresa runs the print through the press and then has a Zoom conversation with the student to discuss the outcome.   As she observes, it is a method she could easily continue with anyone unable to come to her London studio, regardless of lockdowns.  

As she takes a call from a student during my visit, I can vouch for her supportive and encouraging teaching style.  You can find out more about her workshops here: https://www.theresapateman.co.uk/printmaking-workshops

A wide range of Theresa’s work is on show at Southbank Printmakers Gallery at Gabriel’s Wharf, on London’s Southbank, where she is currently the Featured Artist, as well as on our website https://www.southbankprintmakers.com/theresa-pateman

 Theresa can also be contacted at theresapateman@hotmail.com

 

 

 

 

Sandra Haney Exhibition 2020 April 16-19

Sandra's website

 Coddiwomple "To travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination"

Since exhibiting with Southbank Printmakers in June 2019 I have been working on a series of Coddiwomple prints. Coddiwomple describes my approach to painting, printmaking and life in general. I did not have the finished images in mind when I set out to make these prints. Every Coddiwomple print evolved through a series of decisions made along the way, and each print is unique.

Layering and juxtaposing shapes, these one-offs have been created by individually inking and printing vintage wooden letterpress type, paying attention to composition, colour and mark-making. Some developed over many months, some were shorter trips, where I reached a satisfying destination sooner.

Letters and numbers were chosen for their shapes and aesthetic qualities. Images have been made by overprinting whole or parts of the letters and numbers so that they do not function to be read as such, but as elements of an image. I am fascinated with the interaction of colour, shape and texture in a variety of compositions which are open to interpretation.

By way of contrast, alongside the Coddiwomple prints I am showing a collection of images on the theme of Trees, (side wall), where the final images were anticipated before printing. These prints were created by relief and intaglio methods from initial drawings.

From 31st March we will be open

Mon to Fri and Sunday:  11.30 to 6.30pm Saturdays: 10 to 8pm

Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair 22nd - 25th November 2018

visit the website

Four Southbank Printmakers are participating in this prestigious fair.  Below is a peek at the work they are exhibiting.  It's wonderful work, but so much better framed and on the wall!

Kethi Copeland will be exhibiting two pieces in a new series of works that focuses on the High Street. In these new screen-prints she draws inspiration directly from her local area and its changing narrative. The characterful high street has a beauty of its own and is also filled with stark contrasts: The layers of time are revealed in the cracked paint and colour clashes of modern shops whilst the Georgian and Victorian legacy survives in the architecture above the shop fronts.

Kethi uses a multi-layered screen print process, pairing detailed line work with distinctive blocks of printed colour, taking a ‘slow snapshot’ of an ever changing city. Titled anonymously,  Kethi’s prints of ‘The High Street’ are representative of similar streets in London at risk of being erased by developers.

The High Street - close up by Kethi

Kethi will be giving a free print demonstration on Sunday afternoon. Come along on  to try your hand at block printing and contribute to street-scape artwork based on Kethi Copeland's screen-prints.

Deptford Lines by Kethi

Andrea Robinson will be exhibiting Red Boat and Tides, one of a new series of screen prints called To the Sea. Andrea’s prints combine a range of screen print techniques, including photo-stencil and hand painted mono print, and incorporate found images, hand drawn elements and family photographs. Andrea works in series to create visual narratives and to tell half-remembered stories that stem from the places where her family have settled or the places they have passed through. All the prints in the series To the Sea are based on her own photographs; they consider the spaces, light, colour and architecture of our coastlines and the visual iconography of vintage tide tables and calendars.

Red Boat and Tides by Andrea

Other prints in the To the Sea series will be exhibited at Water Street Gallery, Yorkshire (Amazing Rare Things 8 November 2018 - 27 January 2019), and Sprout Arts, London (Print Six, 13 November - 1 December 2018), and on tour as part of the 3rd Annual Red Dot Mini Print Exhibition.

Yoonjung Shim will be exhibiting  two works 'Pianoforte' and 'Brutalist II'.

‘Pianoforte’ resembles the geometric simplicity of the strings and keys of a piano. At first glance, the piece appears to be symmetrical, but when one takes notice of the soft blemished lines, these seem to evoke a melody. In essence, She tries to merge the firm strokes of the etching needle with the subtle gradation of aquatint to create an artistic deconstruction of her favourite instrument, the piano. The 11x11 Pianoforte is the starting point of a series of prints that have inspired her to produce a larger work, ‘Pianoforte Giant’.

Brutalist II by Yoonjung

Inspired by the rugged beauty of Brutalist architecture, ‘Brutalist II’ recreates the regularities of what appears to be a rippling façade in black and white. The inconsistent lines which form this geometric tessellation allude to the imperfections that we find in our everyday lives. This piece is part of a series of works that are concerned with the depiction of various façades.

Pianoforte by Yoonjung

Both works are hard-ground etching with aquatint. 

The prints Jane Stothert will be showing at the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair are of Vauxhall Tower with a hint of the American Embassy, which can be seen from her studio in Lavender Hill, Battersea. From the studio she can see the ever changing skyline littered with cranes, which is a subject she is keen to continue.

Vauxhall Tower II by Jane

 

Vauxhall Tower was created firstly from sketches on her iPad based on a photograph using 'brushes' app. This enables her to try out a variety of colour combinations and to also simplify her image. The final result is a combination of an image created on Photoshop and a pattern of flat shapes cut from light resistant film. These shapes are exposed onto the screen by using a photo emulsion coating on the screen, which is then exposed to light. The emulsion is washed off leaving the exposed shapes on the screen ready to print.

Vauxhall Tower by Jane

 22-25 November 2018

Thursday 22 November

11.00-17.00

Friday 23 November

11.00-17.00

New Collectors Evening 18.00-22.00

Saturday 24 November

10.00-18.00

Sunday 25 November

10.00-16.00

Building 17, Cartridge Place, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, London SE18 6ST