Different processes and techniques require specific spaces, equipment , materials and technicians. I have been printmaking since the age of 16 and aged 20, set up a fully equipped private printmaking studio in Camberwell and taught students traditional etching.
Now I work out of studios in London and across the UK. I can book into the screen studios if I have a project, others, like the etching studios are like old friends – I can nip in and out 24 hrs a day and the Rochat press at Artichoke is a dream.
My own Hunter Penrose press has moved with me everywhere. I even squeezed it into my Primrose Hill flat 4 floors up. More recently I purchased an enormous etching press from the Royal Academy Schools, that has a few stories to tell!
There is also my painting studio in a rural farmhouse – it’s a wonderful space where time stops and I can take a breath.
Juggling studios is key to my unique style and techniques. It gives me thinking time away from the work to question what I’m doing. It can sometimes be lonely being an artist so I especially love being part of a busy studio, where one idea flows into another very quickly.
I source my own materials, always handling the paper first for a new project. A conversation about a brighter smoother finish or a richer more blue- black with the John Purcell team always results in the impossible dream being made possible.
With multiple works on the go in different spaces. Sometimes pieces are not touched for months or years but I look and consider and remember them. I frequently get asked how long a piece has taken and I can now say, 20 years or more!
