Background to Practice

When I went to GSA you chose a department to specialise in your second year of study. So at the age of eighteen I chose printmaking and I have a stuck with it for the forty years ever since.

I love the authority of print, which produces an image which has gone through technical and mechanical processes. I enjoy working in multiples. I was attracted to screen-printing due to the medium’s ability to absorb photographic, geometric and painterly stencils which could be used in combination.

My work tends to be narrative and emotionally driven; often focusing on the human form - the titles have a central position to resonate with the imagery.

I work with a mixture of found vintage images which I chop up and use with my own autographic and photographic images; an eclectic library of personal and archetypal iconography. I create illusionist environments from disparate sources, working with an intense palette of colour opposites. I usually work from dark to light. The light source is always something that’s important to me - I like a dreamlike and nocturnal feel.
In 2017 I had an operation on my spine and it was no longer comfortable for me to screen-print. I had been making digital compositions in tandem with screen-printing for many years and worked in much the same way as I did on my screen-prints - building up images in multiple layers, using total coverage solids in combination with multiple transparent layers, using both positive and negative stencils.

I miss the sound of the vacuum press, the mess and the viscosity of screen-printing inks, but I’ve gained in focus and precision detail by working digitally and in the end I feel it’s all part of my creative journey.

I am a gallery artist with Scotland Art, The Mansefield Park Gallery, Art Pistol, Glasgow Print Studio and The Braemar Gallery.

With thanks to Fiona Watson for the photographs at Glasgow Print Studio.