Lino Print 4

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.

Bryan Angus

Bryan Angus is a printmaker and painter living in Banff on the Moray Firth in Scotland. His work is rooted in 20th century landscape and illustration traditions and influenced by his family history and sense of place and belonging. In 2024 he completed a body of work from a residency in Tuscany, is currently working on commercial commissions and developing a new body of personal work. Bryan has exhibited in a number of countries and across the UK, pieces held in public and private collections.

David Gander

David Gander went to Hornsey College Of Art Foundation course, 1978 - 1979, then to Middlesex Polytechnic studying Graphic Design (BA Hons) 1979 - 1982. Since then he has was worked as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer - and also has  brewery. He moved to France in 2004 and now lives in the south west of the county. 

Eric Gaskell

Eric Gaskell left art college in 1980 with two scholarships and since then has continued working in the creative industries; painting, printing, illustrating and teaching. He has exhibited work in one-man and group shows in America, Canada, Belgium, Spain, Ireland and throughout the UK as a painter and printmaker. For Gaskell good draftsmanship is the key and when combined with strong composition and colour becomes the linchpin of his work. His recent work has used Greek & Roman myth as allegorical hooks that have allowed him to play with composition, pattern and colour. The seascape is a dominant trope in his work, these seascapes come from drawings made, memories recollected and complete flights of fancy. His printmaking preference is linocut as the colour processes used, the textures and physical mark- making suit his working methods. He revels in the immediacy of linocut that in truth can take many weeks to produce.

Gaskell is a member of the Society of Graphic Fine Art, the Printmakers Council and the Royal Birmingham Society of Arts. He is mentioned in many publications and has work in UK public collections as well as many private collections around the world.

Gemma Trickey

Gemma Trickey is a printmaker working in The Mendip Hills. Her work explores the layers of history and myth embedded within both our landscape and minds that give a sense of place and interconnectedness.

After studying Fine Art at London Guildhall University, she began printmaking in 2018 before moving to rural Somerset, where the area’s history - natural, human and imagined - inspire her to seek hidden stories, symbols and customs - the “buried treasure” within our surroundings.

Influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, British folk art and decorative arts, she makes works that combine our love of folklore and symbolic meaning to investigate the shadows of ancestors who came before us and how they are still present in our psyche today.

Her playful characterisations often nod to darker meanings, inviting the viewer to question their nostalgic view of the old ways and what we seek to soothe our modern minds.

Georgia Flowers

Georgia Flowers is a Hove based artist printmaker who creates prints in the medium of linocut. She is inspired by subjects around the themes of birds, nature, and architecture and likes to create bold, linear images through detailed mark making. 

She graduated in a degree in Fine Art at Bath Spa University in 2008 but discovered linocutting in 2012 through working at the specialist printmaking supplies company Lawrence’s and has since become a self taught linocut artist as well as a linocutting tutor, teaching at ‘Print Club’, an open access print room in Hove which she founded in 2018. 

Georgia creates all her work using a Tofko etching roller press in her home studio, and as well as making limited edition linocut prints on handmade Japanese papers, she also makes a range of linoprinted merchandise including notebooks, coasters, bookmarks, tote bags and cards. 

She has had her pieces selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions in 2019 and 2024, was given a four page interview by ‘Pressing Matters’ in 2022 and was also commissioned by book publishing company ‘Profile Books’ to create linocut artwork for the hardback book ‘George’ by Frieda Hughes.

Hannah Forward

Hannah Forward is an artist and printmaker originally from London, now living in Brighton & Hove. She creates multi layered, colourful linocut prints which often centre around her love of music, film and sport. She likes to make work that helps instil a sense of comfort and nostalgia, with an edge of humour. She enjoys taking an experimental approach to what she does, particularly with colour which is a strong focus in her print work.

Hannah’s work has been selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2018 and 2019. She won the Pressing Matters print prize at Brighton Print Fair in 2017. 

Her work is held in private collections internationally.

Hugh RIbbans

At Canterbury College of Art, when I was a student in the sixties, relief printmaking (mainly lino cutting) was a major activity in the Design Department. In 1989 I bought a restored Columbian press and returned to lino and wood block printmaking. The fascination with pattern and line when cutting away with the various lino tools is a constant source of enjoyment and even an obsession. I just see things that amuse me and get the urge to turn them into a linocut. I mainly work in black and white at the moment. Sometimes with small areas of applied colour added to provide a contrast.

Jay Caskie

 Jay Caskie is a printmaker based in Cornwall, UK.

 He specialises in relief printmaking and primarily works in wood engraving and collage. He received his BFA from NSCAD University in Halifax, Canada in 2019. 

He regularly shows in exhibitions both in the UK and internationally. His work can be found in private collections around the world including in the UK, Australia, USA, Japan, France and Germany.

"My work is inspired by the vastness of the Canadian landscapes where I grew up and the rugged beauty of the Cornish coastline where I live now. I create intricately detailed landscapes that explore themes of home, solitude, and our intrinsic connection to the natural world. I aim to convey not only the physical attributes but also the emotional resonance of the landscapes. My prints serve as windows into contemplative scenes, the intricate details holding the viewer’s attention and fostering a sense of introspection and reflection."

Jo Oakley

For the last 37 yrs and since training in Fine Art at North East London Polytechnic Jo has continued to pursue her own fine art practice whilst working professionally within the arts and raising a family. Jo is a South East Londoner but has had a deep connection with the East Kent Coast all my life. Childhood holidays set in motion her love of the Thames estuary and this is now where she lives working solely on her art practice.

Jo now has space at home for her intmaking and painting and is a minutes walk away from the sea and ‘The Downs’ of Herne Bay. This beautiful unspoilt space gives constant inspiration. The connection with nature has added the ‘something’ IJo had been missing for a while living in London. Being aware of the seasons and developing an interest in foraging and collecting seaweed to eat as well as paint and draw. Jo's interest and practice in printmaking has bought her in the last years to Lino.  She has a lasting fascination with the illustrations by Arthur Rackham and have collected Victorian seaside postcards for many years. Now living by the sea Jo;s  imaginary world of sea dwelling folk has emerged. Aubrey Beardsley’s monochromatic line fascinates her, the form and flow. She is now exploring these lines for herself. 

Joshua Miles

Joshua Miles was born in the Western Cape in South Africa in 1967. He studied fine arts at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town where he received the Michaelis Prize for best student in his final year. After finishing at UCT Joshua moved to Hermanus where he met his Scottish wife Angela. They have been married more than 20 years and they have over the years lived and worked between South Africa and Scotland. While they still maintain their home and studio in South Africa, in 2020 they moved to Scotland more permanently and established their home and studio in Kirkcudbright. Joshua is a prolific worker and has exhibited extensively in groups and solo exhibitions.

"My influence in printmaking was at a young age - watching his aunt Elsa Miles, artist and art historian, doing woodcuts. I am inspired by the play of light on the landscape which leads me to explore my local areas. I am always hunting qualities of light that evoke emotion. This is often the softer light that brings out the in between tones and greys most would miss. This love of capturing the play of light is also found in reflections on water or objects. I am also inspired by the impressionist style of loose mark making and the Japanese tradition of printmaking."

Judith Westrup

Judith Westrup is an entirely self-taught artist who works in the medium of linocut. Before becoming a printmaker, she had a career in Health and Education. Judith finds inspiration in the history of local landscapes, from ancient trees to old trackways to industrial remains. She is also a keen mudlark, a recorder of Ancient Trees and hedgelayer, and this often influences her work. Judith lives with her family and her chickens in Kent, where she prints and teaches from her kitchen studio.

"I am a printmaker working in the medium of linocut. I enjoy the simple physical processes of this old art form, from the deliberate carving into linoleum to the gentle rolling of ink and the slow turning of the cast-iron Victorian presses. In print and in life, I love exploring the rolling chalk downlands, marshes and coastlines of Kent and Sussex. I am conscious of living in a densely populated county, and I often seek the quiet places where time stands still, where ancient trackways hold memories of silent footsteps and where old trees watch over a landscape shaped by humans long ago. By slowly building up layer upon layer of translucent ink, I try to capture that still space between a time that has gone before and a time that has yet to begin."

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 Sissinghurst Castle and the Lighthouse at South Foreland.

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 her recent Sweet Peas. 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.

Laura Boswell

My work explores ideas of light, space and scale within wild Scottish landscape, particularly the coast surrounding Kirkcudbright, where I live. 

As a printmaker, drawing forms the foundation of all my prints. I create observational drawings on-site and then refine them into final designs in the studio. I specialize in reduction linocut, using a single block to cut, print, and rework the same piece of lino throughout the process. This method offers a freedom that allows me to continuously draw and edit as I go, using dip pens, brushes, and other mark-making tools directly onto the block to inform my cutting.

I print in many layers of transparent ink, incorporating shading techniques inspired by traditional printmaking techniques I learned in Japan. My aim is not to create direct portraits of specific locations, but to capture the living landscape, the ephemeral light and atmosphere and open spaces, allowing viewers to experience these scenes on their own terms. Since moving to Scotland, I’ve been captivated by the pearly quality of the light and the dynamic interplay between land and sea, and this is reflected in my current work.

I am a member of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers.  My book ‘Making Japanese Woodblock Prints’ was published by Crowood Press in 2019 following my printmaking studies in Japan. My second book ‘Linocut and Reduction Printing, Design and Techniques’ came out in 2022. My prints feature in national collections including the The House of Lords, and the National Library of Wales and Buckinghamshire County Museum. I also have prints in the Nagasawa Art Park collection and the MI-Lab Print Collection in Japan. 

Mat Pringle

Mat is a Margate based Illustrator and Printmaker. His artwork draws primarily from folklore but also from music, books and cinema. He works predominantly in linocut printmaking - specifically reduction linocut - contrasting fine detailed linework with simple but expressive colour palettes. 

He is currently writing and illustrating a book about traditional folk songs in the British Isles called 'Singing Up the Sun' for the publishers Unbound. 

Nicole Revy

Nicole Revy is a printmaker from West Dorset specialising in original hand-carved and printed linocuts. She has a background in illustration, (studying at Arts University Bournemouth), and that experience brings a strong narrative feel to her print work.  Her subject matter is intimate and evocative- often transporting the viewer to a moment in time, or to relive a memory of their own. Much of her work is female centric, with a feminine figure making her way through the natural world- the importance of remembering our connection to the earth and environment is strongly depicted in every piece. The audience is often moved emotionally, with many themes of womanhood resonating deeply. Contemporary scenes are often mixed with magic and folkore- creating a vintage feel with modern subject matter to create a recognisable and unique style. 

Nicole is part of a 4 woman print collective based in the South West, and will be exhibiting in Bristol this summer, as well as creating ongoing collaborative print work as part of this. Later this year her first illustrated children’s book will be published by Moon Dust Press. 

Nicole’s work in print has won awards and is exhibited and stocked in galleries and shops globally. 

Strangford

Jo Pearson, known by her alias Strangford, is a printmaker based on the scenic Ards Peninsula in Northern Ireland. Her work brings a quirky and colorful twist to relief and Riso printing, often featuring animals with an imaginative edge. A former secondary science teacher, Jo left the classroom in 2023 to immerse herself full-time in the world of ink, lino cuttings, and creative exploration.

Drawing from her background in ecology, Jo’s prints reflect a playful interpretation of nature, blending humor with vibrant, experimental compositions. Her process involves meticulously hand-carving lino and plywood, then using a modified laminating machine to produce bold, large-scale prints. Each piece is a balance of craftsmanship and curiosity, driven by a love for pushing the boundaries of color and texture.

Tigerlino

Tigerlino (Kester Hackney) is a printmaker based on the South East coast of England. Working from his garden studio, Tigerlino has spent the past eight years crafting surreal worlds populated by bizarre characters and strange, dreamlike scenes. His unique style plays with warped perspectives, embedding a sense of distortion and intrigue. Interested in the unusual, Tigerlino enhances his prints with intricate textures and bold patterns, inviting viewers into an imaginative and visually compelling universe.

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.