Lino Print - An Exhibition of Relief Prints

Laura Boswell

Laura is a second career artist and began linocut printing in 2005. She attended the Nagasawa Art Park residency in Japan in 2009 to learn traditional Japanese woodblock printing. The skills learnt on that and a second residency with MI Lab have shaped her printmaking and my professional career. 
Laura works exclusively with linocut and woodblock and is fascinated by ideas of shape, light and scale in the landscape. While her prints are based on observational drawings made on location, they are not direct geographic representations, rather they reflect her impression of the place. Laura prefers to leave her landscapes empty of man-made elements or people, for the viewer to enjoy on their own terms.

Zoe Cloke

Zoe Cloke is a Herne based artist and printmaker working mainly in linocut and digital giclée prints under the name of Leave Me Hanging. Her print work is inspired by snapshots of life and uses simple colour combinations often contrasted with black and white to add detail. The expansion of work to relief print making is recent and each new work explores different ways of using the medium, enjoying the noise and movement that comes from linocut compared to the clinical precision of digital work. Zoe believes strongly in making owning art accessible for all and to this end creates both unlimited and limited edition work. 

Ben Dickson

Ben Dickson is an experienced lino print and portrait artist based in Whitstable, with a history in art therapy, graphic design and commercial art. He currently works variously as a freelance artist and printmaker. Recent projects include... painting a large mural of Somerset Maugham in Whitstable. Ben also created over 500 cut outs for a social distancing project for the Marlowe Theatre and a large scale mural for Petits Supermarket in Dublin. He also produces commissioned portraits on request.

Hannah Firmin Ma RCA

Hannah Firmin Ma RCA is an illustrator and printmaker. Since graduating from The Royal College of Art Hannah has worked as a freelance illustrator and printmaker creating work for all the national magazines and publishing houses as well as working for clients all over the world.

You may know her work from the book covers of Alexander McCall Smith’s No 1 Ladies’ Detective Series, for which she won a ‘Best Book cover at the British Book Awards.

As well as her commissioned work Hannah creates small editions of hand printed linocuts

Ieuan Edwards

Ieuan is a Broadstairs-based linocut printmaker and illustrator. His maternal grandfather was a miner in South Wales and moved with his family to the Kentish coast in the late 60s when he retired from colliery life due to ill health. Although Kent born, Ieuan is acutely aware of his heritage and a large part of his work concentrates on bridging the gap between the coalfields and the seaside, chiefly through comparing the mechanical structures of our industrial heritage and those of the fairground. Ieuan’s other influences include palaeontology, exploration and folklore. 

Graham Firth

Graham Firth taught art and design at Doncaster College for almost 30 years.

He used to produce about 6 finished prints a year when in full-time work but since taking voluntary severance from the College and building his own studio, he has considerably stepped up production.

Graham produces mainly lino-cuts but also some woodcuts and collagraphs, his work is figurative and based on observation; most prints are based on sketchbook drawings produced on the spot.

Andrew Fisher

Andrew Fisher is a Canterbury based artist/printmaker specialising in mainly Lino Cut mixed media prints, often layering up different colours over a stencil spray painted base. Subject matter generally seems to involve vintage technology such as amplifier valves, combustion engines and beer. Recent commissions and exhibitions include Fez Micro Pub in sunny Margate, Greasy Kulture vintage custom motorcycle magazine, View Gallery Whitstable, Pie Factory Margate, Landmark Art Fair Teddington, Don’t Walk Walk Gallery Deal and Brighton Print Fair.

Peter Gander

Peter Gander (BA Hons) graduated from Canterbury College of Art, Kent in 1984 and worked in London as graphic designer and art director for 25 years. He has recently moved to Margate where he illustrates for his company ‘HaveAGander’ www.haveagander.net (Est’d 2012) producing hand-drawn Maps, Prints, Homeware, Gifts and Greetings Cards. His printmaking and painting work can be seen at www.petergander.blogspot.com 

Eric Gaskell

Born in Wigan, England in 1957 Eric studied fine art at Wigan and Sunderland. After leaving art college in 1980 he won two painting scholarships as well as the Sunderland Fine Art prize. Since then Eric has continually worked in the creative industries, teaching, illustrating and exhibiting around the world. 

Drawing is key to Eric’s work and has been since college. For him it is both a diary, an academic exercise and a way to work through his ideas. His print work is colourful and structured moving from tightly figurative to symbolic/iconographic work. In print he prefers linocut, its strong, flat colour and its physical mark-making suiting his working methods and likes how its graphic appearance seems immediate but can actually take many days of work to produce.

Kate Guy

Kate Guy is a London based printmaker working with linocut and monotype. During the recent lockdowns was inspired by her cat to produce a series of prints illustrating the (non) adventures of Lockdown Cat.  Kate has always loved printmaking and created her first linocut when she was 6 on the Victorian Albion press in her parent’s studio at home.  

Kate graduated from Norwich School of Art with a degree in Graphic Design and went on to work in animation studios in London and Budapest, followed by a spell as a freelance illustrator and designer.

Kate now runs a successful textile design label ‘Kate Guy Prints’, her first designs were all linocuts based on the kitchen. She started to illustrate recipes with minimal words, just through imagery, specifically, traditional British recipes.  

Tina Hagger

Tina Hagger is a Linocut Printmaker based in Faversham. She started linocut printmaking after being bought a workshop session as a gift. She loves the style and texture of linocut prints and the manual nature of linocutting; the anticipation and excitement when the first print is revealed off her Victorian Book Press.

Tina is heavily influenced by the county of her birth, Kent, and its beautiful countryside. She particularly loves a wander in the North Kent marshes. As a result, many of her prints have a theme of the interplay between nature and place.

Neil Mattingly

Neil Mattingly discovered the joys of printmaking five years ago while searching for mediums to nail down and share the images that continually arrive into his conscious (or unconscious) mind. He had enjoyed painting but the ability to hand print and share ideas via linocut, silkscreen and etching processes proved irresistible. 

Disney to Dada and Story telling to Life's many imponderables provide a steady stream of material that Neil now prints either at home on his A2 press or with Victoria Printmakers group in Gravesend. He also prints at the excellent Intra Studios in Rochester and exhibits at the annual Medway Print Festival and other Kent Galleries.

Any enquiries to nmattingly@live.com

Nick Morley

Nick Morley (also known as Linocutboy) lives and works in Margate and has been making prints for over 20 years. For the last 10 years he has specialised in linocut. Nick’s prints are inspired by nature and humankind’s attempts to understand, tame and control the natural world. 

Nick sells around the world, and he has illustrated book covers for publishers in the UK, Germany and The Netherlands. He runs Hello Print Studio in Margate, and is a Director of Resort in Margate. Nick teaches regular linocut workshops at Hello Print Studio and has run workshops in the UK, Ireland and Italy. He is the author of ‘Linocut for Artists and Designers’ which has become an indispensable resource for many linocut artists.

Kate Neame

Kate is a Kent based designer and printmaker who takes inspiration from her architectural background and from the natural world.

Her most recent lino prints include the Coastguard Cottages at the Seven Sisters and the iconic National Trust property Scotney Castle at Lamberhurst.

Kate’s work captures the strong essential elements of the world around us, which can be seen in some of her botanical prints such as Cyclamen, White Anemone and Agapanthus and Fern Fiddleheads. Her prints are hand printed onto fully archival paper using water based ink and each print is a unique individual piece of art that form part of small limited editions.

Emily Smith Polyblank

Emily Smith Polyblank grew up in a household of both her parents being painters influenced her to do art in all mediums. Eventually Emily joined a foundation course at Maidstone art college, where she met Euphemia McTavish who taught her printmaking. It seemed natural to Emily so she tried other forms of printmaking and carried on to do a degree in Farnham Surrey. Emily took advantage of all the facilities at art college enjoying mainly Lithograph and woodcuts which are more enjoyable to her as the grain in the wood always inspires and challenges. She has exhibited in lots of places but including The Royal academy summer exhibition, which she has shown at seven times. The last time being this summer 2019 with her largest woodcut to date.

Jo Oakley

Jo’s interest and practice in printmaking has been developed over many years as her mother is a successful printmaker and she has can’t remember a time without a printing press in her house.

This curiosity with print has bought her in the last few years to lino cutting. She has a fascination for the illustrations by Arthur Rackham and the line of Aubrey Beardsley and has collected Victorian postcards over many years.

Now living by the sea her imaginary world of sea folk has come to life.

Mat Pringle

Mat Pringle is an Illustrator, Printmaker and Arts Educator based in Margate. He works predominantly in linocut and has a wide range of influences including folklore, film, books and music. His first solo exhibition 'An Alphabet of Musicians' featured twenty-six of his favourite musicians, singers and producers including Sun Ra, Bjork, Q-Tip, Tom Waits and PJ Harvey.

More recently he has been working from his studio at Resort creating bigger multi-layered reduction prints using the Hello Print Studio facilities. He has been teaching Illustration and Printmaking at the BRIT School for over five years and is looking to expand his teaching practice to local schools and workshops.

Total Pap

Total Pap are Justin Mitchell and Emily Firmin. They make three dimensional papier-mâché wall mounted pictures, freestanding sculptures, Automata, ceramics and Limited edition linocuts printed on their 1869 Albion Press.

Justin met Emily around 1990, who studied Graphics B Tec at Canterbury College of Art and had just also just finished a Graphics film degree at Central St Martins. They were both out of work and so had a go at making papier-mâché sculptures. They tried selling them at Camden Market and fortunately for them, the Victorian Craft hall next to the lock took a shine to their stall. They took over the walls of The Three Kings in Clerkenwell where they sold from for many years after.

Justin and Emily both work on separate pieces but often together in the same space, referring to each other for ideas and ideas. However, they do large projects together, like the Whitstable Oyster festival parade, (2015-2107), or decking out pubs for the very inspiring John Rogers design group. Nowadays, generally if it's a larger job, Emily and Justin will work together, starting off with a selection of disparate ideas, but mostly culminating in a mutually pleasing end result.

Hugh Ribbans

Hugh Ribbans trained at Canterbury College of Art. Relief printmaking was his craft subject at college, particularly linocutting, and in 1989 he purchased a restored Columbian press, c.1860.

He produces linocuts and woodcuts sometimes mixing heavily grained wood and lino in his prints. Subject matter can be images of animals and birds or people and places seen when travelling. Always with an obsession with line and a reverence to Edward Bawden.

He has exhibited at the Barbican Gallery, the National Theatre, the National Print Exhibition, the Printmakers Council Open, The Society of Wood Engravers, the Society of Wildlife Artists, the Fry Gallery and the Affordable Artfair.

Ben Sands

Ben Sands was born in 1920 in Westcliff on Sea, Essex in 1920. At the age of 14 his artistic talent earned him a scholarship to the Willesden School of Art and after serving in the second world war, Ben enrolled at London’s Central School of Arts & Crafts to develop further skills in wood-engraving. He worked as a typographic designer in a publishing house, while working on his own creative artwork in his spare time. This led him to get his own small printing press in the 1950s. His printing projects produced a number of broadsheets and handmade printed books. Ben moved to Whitstable in 1960 with his family. He was devoted to producing lino-cut engravings in the decades after retirement. Ben died in 2016 and his son Matt has kindly donated a selection of works for this exhibition.