St. Peters, Langley Burrell by Sarah Kirby
Launch Event: Thursday 6th June 5pm - 7.00pm
Our new exhibition explores different printmaking practices. We’re delighted to include some original Robin Tanner etchings together with books, exhibition materials and correspondence. Robin and his wife Heather lived in Kington Langley from 1932 - 1988 and was an artist, teacher, printmaker and etcher. Tanner's etching plates are held at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
To accompany Robin’s historic work we have invited five contemporary printmakers to exhibit their work: Sarah Kirby, Matt Underwood, Kate Robinson, Phillip Kingsbury and Kathy Hutton.
Sarah Kirby
Sarah Kirby is an artist and printmaker based in Leicester, in the East Midlands. Over the past 35 years she has exhibited her work nationally and undertaken several artist residencies. In recent years she has looked deeper into the historical importance of gardens, green spaces and the countryside.
In Spring 2023 she was invited to spend a few days at the Pythouse Kitchen Garden in Tisbury, South Wiltshire. The idea coming from the Head Chef at the restaurant there was to produce a small series of linocuts about this very special place through the seasons of the year.
Vegetable Plot, Pythouse by Sarah Kirby
Pythouse is one of those classic 18th century walled gardens - three acres, south-west facing and slightly sloping. Around the soft brick walls are cordoned pears, a wall divided the bottom section and an orchard, and then another natural boundary before the beehives amongst tall trees and wild garlic. The resulting linocut prints are each made with two blocks. The artist used traditional brown flooring lino and print on a two hundred year-old Albion press at her home.
Also included here is a special lino cut of St. Peter’s Church, Langley Burrell, which is in Chippenham Museum’s collection of modern and contemporary printmaking.
Matt Underwood
Matt Underwood
Born in Wiltshire in 1971, Matt Underwood’s curiosity about natural history led him to drawing and keeping sketchbooks from an early age. He went on to study art and art history at Salisbury College of Art and then to Carmarthenshire College of Art to study wildlife illustration, completing his HND in illustration with a distinction.
Matt began his career as a painter after leaving college, his main subjects being landscape and still life. In recent years he has returned to his interest in natural history, producing eye-catching works in collage, mixed media and oil. His woodblock prints are widely collected for their bold colours and strong composition.
As a painter-printer, Matt finds that it is often a tiny piece of information, which may trigger an idea for a work – seeing an animal or bird in an unusual location, or a blink sketch of swifts. The challenge for him is to convey his enthusiasm for the subject and capture the feeling of seeing something for the first time.
Meadow by Matt Underwood
Matt is an elected member of The Society of Wildlife Artists and has exhibited his work at many galleries including the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, The Royal West of England Academy of Art, and the Mall Galleries where in 2002 he won the RSPB Fine Art Award.
Malmesbury Abbey by Kate Robinson
Kate Robinson
Kate is based in Malmesbury, Wiltshire where the architecture of this historic market town and its surrounding villages inspire much of her work. Her first degree and subsequent career was in Engineering and Product Design but she later took a BA Hons in Illustration from UWE with a particular interest in printing. The lino prints are produced on an 1851 cast iron Albion Press. Her bold images often apply geometry and pattern, but she is rarely without a sketch book to hand, and her ideas usually start with subjects drawn from life.
www.katetheprinter.com
Laurel by Kathy Hutton
Kathy Hutton
Kathy Hutton was born in Wallasey, Wirral, and graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, Scotland, with a degree in printed textiles, supported by printmaking. After graduating she won an award with Habitat at the New Designers exhibition in Islington, which led to a career in design, product development and buying.
Ten years ago she moved to Wiltshire with her husband, and after bringing up her family began to print again. From her home studio in Yatton Keynell, she has been developing her distinctive style of still life compositions with simple, freehand line work combined with a variety of print methods. The designs are all hand drawn by the artist from life and often feature the simple shapes, forms and patterns of pebbles and plants. Her lino cuts and screen prints create strong and bold silhouettes inspired by nature.
Malmesbury and Beyond by Phillip Kingsbury
Philip Kingsbury
Phillip Kingsbury is a linocut printmaker, painter, illustrator and graphic designer. Having grown up in Malmesbury, and living there with his young family, the Wiltshire town hugely inspires his work. Knowing the town very well, he is able to twist perspectives and sketch from memory and imagination as well as study.
Phillip’s love of printmaking was ignited whilst studying at Hereford Art College. Here, he had the opportunity to explore the print studio and experiment with a variety of printmaking techniques including etching, screen printing, lithography, and linocut. After finishing his studies, he continued to create linocuts using some very basic kit from his kitchen table. His pseudonym, The Wooden Spoon Press, comes from these early days before he owned an etching press and instead used a wooden spoon as his press.
https://woodenspoonpress.com/