At home making a mess instead of in the studio…

I’ve always had some connection to art in my life. After completing an Arts Degree in Art History & History at Otago University, I qualified and worked as a secondary school Art & Art History teacher.

I began my journey as a printmaker however in my final years at secondary school, drawn to the handcrafted step-by-step process of lino cutting and the delicate illustrative task of etching.

As a New Zealander in London, my nostalgia for all things ‘Kiwi’ has been an inspiration for many of my prints and I’ve endeavoured to provide some familiarity for many of the homesick Kiwi’s abroad. We all yearn for a sense of home, a feeling of belonging and the value of our ancestry or heritage.

Inspired by childhood memories of symbols and images from home, I’ve taken those ideas and reimagined them through the printing process via my own drawings, colour choices and through my own distinctive reductive cutting style.

I believe today there is too much attention given to digital printmaking, for large unlimited print runs of what are essentially just posters. The prints I create are all limited, with no more than 30 and sometimes less than 5 editions, all painstakingly created by hand.

Each hand-pressed print is unique and involves skill and technical ability acquired after years of experience in printmaking. Because printmaking reverses the artist’s original image it is a technique that requires much shrewd guesswork. When I peel back the paper to reveal my printed image it is always nerve-racking but equally exciting and hugely satisfying when everything unites and all factors are working together beautifully.

I have always been drawn to the visual impact of large artworks when viewed from afar and my lino prints reflect this, however, I also love the intricacy and linear nature of etching. Out of a fear of using acid baths and anything toxic, I was persuaded by a printmaking tutor years ago who suggested using the inside of tetrapak containers, recycling them after use as and when I needed them. The structural layout of the tetrapak gives the artwork a compartmental quality, like the small boxes of insects and creatures stored in drawers in entomology collections.

Influential artists include Dick Frizzell and Stanley Palmer, both New Zealand artists, the screenprints of Andy Warhol and the paintings of Jasper Johns, both American Pop Artists of the 1950 and 1960’s.

As a New Zealander living and working in London I enjoy returning home whenever possible. I work either in various printmaking studios around London or at my studio and kitchen table at home, working in and around the demands of three children. In addition to my printmaking, I work part-time at Farrow & Ball advising customers on colour, something I know a thing or two about!

My work is represented in private collections in the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand.