Engraving from Bank' Floriligium
Biog
I was born in Helensburgh, a wee seaside town on the River Clyde and grew up in the golden age of glam rock; Bowie, Roxy Music and T Rex were my heroes along with the maverick Hawkwind.
My art teacher at school, Robin Philips, had a huge influence on me introducing me to the world of pop art, Paolozzi, Warhol and the Glasgow School.
My summer job was as a gardener/handyman in ‘Hillhouse’ the Charles Rennie Mackintosh house and it was here that my interest in the Arts and Crafts Movement was fuelled. Every Friday I had to polish the floors, the brass door handles and even the taps. Mackintosh designed everything in the house along with his wife, Margaret, and I was lucky enough to absorb all the amazing detail and spaces they created all to myself! The best cleaning job I’ve ever had and one I’ll never forget. It’s well worth a visit if you’re ever in that part of the world.
After school I spent a year in Edinburgh and resat my miserably failed Higher English exam at night school, it was the heady days of punk and there seemed to be a gig every night…how I passed that exam is still a mystery to me.
My flatmate was into screen-printing and we printed and designed posters for gigs and shows even circuit boards for electric bagpipes. I got really into printing and did my own t-shirts using torn stencils and cutouts. My love of screen-printing was born.
I applied and got accepted to Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen and spent the next five years there. I specialised in printed textiles and printmaking. My approach to textiles was more as a painter than designer, treating the cloth as a big blank canvas and I experimented with all sorts of techniques. In my final post diploma year all my pieces were basically big printed paintings it must have paid off, as I won the scholarship that year.
I used the scholarship to travel round Greece and then moved to London, where I’ve been ever since.
I got a job as a fine art editioner with Editions Alecto and for the next six years worked on Banks’ Florilegium, the stunning engravings produced from Sydney Parkinson’s botanical drawings he made on Captain Cook’s tour. The project was amazing, one of the biggest printing jobs ever undertaken, 743 line engraved plates in all and my job was to print the editions using a technique called à la poupée, where up to ten colours are worked directly into the plate before a print is pulled.
The project has had a lasting impact on my work, especially most recently; a series of pen and ink drawings made at Kew Gardens which I’ve translated into pewter plates/chargers and a range of jewellery which I hope evoke the wonderful sensory experience I have when I visit the gardens and glasshouses.
This series was produced as a proposal for the Pewter Live 2012 design competition; to make a souvenir or memento for a public attraction. I’ve posted some of the pieces in my portfolio. Fingers crossed it’ll be accepted. To be continued……
60 second interview
Q: What is your favourite colour?A: BlueQ: Who first inspired you to start making/ creating and what words of advice did they give you?A: Robin Phillips, Andy Warhol, Eduardo Paolozzi and Charles Rennie Mackintosh - "There is hope in honest error, none in the icy perfections of the mere stylist"Q: Where and when do you most like to work?A: In my studio and doodling in front of the telly at home till very late.Q: Which season of the year most inspires you?A: SpringQ: What can't you work without?A: My Technics SL-1210 MK 2 record decks.Q: Whose work do you most admire?A: Bronzino, Richard Wright, William Morris and John Waters. Q: What is your favourite piece of fiction and why?A: Wilkie Collins - No Name...crackin thriller, atmospheric and way ahead of its time...The Gormenghast Trilogy comes in a close second.Q: What do you do to relax?A: Drink incredibly expensive white port and watch all the early St Trinian films.Q: Describe your artistic style in 3 words. A: Graphic, Patterned, Intense.
No one has written a review for this maker yet. Why not be the first?