Growing up in a household with a designing engineer father and an artist mother, I was lucky that art and creativity were respected and encouraged. After dabbling with all sorts of art and craft, 24 yrs ago, in a drawing class, the tutor told me I should be etching, and so I started to look for a class.
Having found the class at Mairangi Arts and under the expert tutelage of Joan Taylor, I found that this art medium suited my love of line and tone with lots of scope to problem solve and invent. When Joan retired from the class she suggested I become the tutor. I am thankful for her confidence in me.
I am passionate about keeping this ancient art alive. For many years printmaking has had a low profile, a poor sister to other mediums like acrylics, oils and watercolour. It seemed whenever I mentioned printmaking to anyone, I would then need to explain that traditional intaglio printmaking has nothing to do with photocopiers. It is still, in this digital age, the only way to impart a rope of ink into paper.
However in the last few years, printmaking is increasingly enjoying a “comeback”, with a resurgence of interest in monoprinting, drypoint, linocuts, etc. It is exciting times for printmakers!
One of the wonderful things about etching an intaglio plate in zinc, is the ability to create an edition of your finished plate, thus producing many original artworks from the one plate.
