Thursday, 5 April 2012

In which I visit many local artists


Mr P and I visited the York Open Studios again this year.  It’s two weekends in the Spring where local artists open up their studios to the public, to show off and sell their work.

I love it.  Partly, it’s a chance to nosey around some beautiful houses, and also gaze enviously at other people’s studios and work spaces. 

This year, I was especially blown away by three printmakers.  We’ve been to see Emily Harvey’s work before, but she’s well worth visiting again and again.  Last time we went, she’d been making collagraphs with cobwebs.  Srsly.  I love her use of colour and texture – her work has so much depth to it, and has a really ethereal quality.  In some of her latest work, she was using letters she’d found in her aunt’s house after her aunt died.  They weren’t deep or important letters, but Emily didn’t want to throw them away, so she’s printed on them. 

New this year to the Open Studios were Michael Kirkman and Karen Mabon who are fantastically and annoyingly talented.  You know, the sort of people you’d dislike if they weren’t so nice.  Karen even went to the shops for milk so she could make us tea.  I loved their lino prints – they were so dynamic and punchy.  My guess is that both of these two will go very far. 

Other York printmakers we did not see this time, but whom I love, are Milena Dragic, Mark Hearld, and Catherine Sutciffe-Fuller.  Yum!

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