You are cordially invited to join us for the opening of

 Jane Bennett & Nuala Ryding’s collaborative exhibition.

Jane and Nuala are ArtLab’s Fellowship Artists for 2010/2011

Since completing their BA(Hons)Fine Art Degree with UCLan in 2010 Jane Bennett and Nuala Ryding have continued to explore the realm of Printmaking during a Fellowship to ArtLab. Throughout the year the two of them have been striving to grasp a more profound understanding of all aspects of Printmaking and the exhibition will be a showcase of the work they have completed to their own individual themes. Jane has been developing work within a varied scope of printmaking techniques and the final selection of work is an amalgamation of the different individual pieces that have been created over the year, whereas Nuala has experimented within a large group of techniques but then focused on creating one final piece of work. Both artists have now begun to study their MA Fine Art – Studio Practice and plan to continue working within Printmaking.

Artlab Contemporary Print Studios is very pleased to announce this years Fellowship Artists are:

Naomi Jones and Rebecca Liggett

After completing a degree in Illustration, Naomi  has decided to return to UClan this year to start the Children’s Book Illustration Masters. She has been working using print for  around two years now, mostly producing collagraph and lino images.  She is hoping to use her fellowship time to develope her silk screen skills inorder to produce a book based on the old nursery rhyme “Sing a song of Sixpence”.

Rebecca’s work is often based around our natural environment, creating images and ideas from places of personal value. Printmaking, in particular etching and embossing, is used widely in her work as a method of mass-producing images. She finds textures of natural objects intriguing, such as shells, leaves and feathers, water ripples and cracks in tree bark.

In addition to  printmaking,  Rebecca uses artists’ books as a way of binding her prints. Rebecca states “artists’ books more engaging than prints framed on a wall, as the viewer is able to interact with the books by picking them up and looking at them closely.”

Rebecca’s definition of an artists’ book is that it does not have to follow the traditional format of a book, for example, have a cover, read from left to right and top to bottom.  It should, however, contain some form of information, and ‘read’ in a way that the viewer can follow in a logical sense. The information contained in the book can be written or visual. The beauty of an artists’ book is that many different materials can be used, and it can become as craft-based or sculptural as the artist wishes. Most importantly, any book, no matter if reproductions are made or if it is part of a series, should be viewed as an individual piece.

Both artists will be working in the studios at UCLan and displaying their new works through out the year.

 The article is the first published results of their on-going research into Acrylic based  aquatint products and seeks to invite all printmakers to join their project by following the blog and posting their findings and experiments.

http://nontoxicintaglio.tumblr.com

 Jadranka Njegovan studied at the Royal Academy of Visual Arts, The Hague.

Jadranka works predominantly with drawing, lithography and photography.   She also writes for several printmaking magazines and periodicals.  Her work plays with the notions of ‘abstract’ and ‘figurative’.

The images in her lithographs are not directly based on observation of reality but on basic elements; line and tone. Lines are freely drawn on the lithographic stone and once they are given a shadow, suddenly become wires, branches or something lying on a surface.   A space is created.   An abstract drawing becomes figurative.

Jadranka gave us a valuable reminder that traditional techniques of working are just as effective as mediums for realising contemporary pieces of work as the new technologies.  She was very generous with her time, making sure she spoke to everyone after the talk and answering technical questions on the art of Stone Lithography. Everyone was inspired by her passion and commitment to her work and we thank her for making time in her very busy schedule to visit us.

During March we were very happy to welcome Georg Gartz to our studios. He spent a week working with us in the screenprinting studios making new works. He was kind enough to give us an evening of his time to share his resulting prints with the members of Artlab contemporary print studios and TUCAN.  You can see examples of Georg’s work on his website: http://www.georg-gartz.de/

Bren’s passion for drawing and printmaking was eloquently conveyed.  Bren carefully balanced her talk with explanations about her research theory and how it has dramatically changed her practice over the last few years with a more practical explanation about where she finds her inspiration on a daily level and how she makes her prints.

“At the end of the day I just love doodling in the landscape”

For all who attended Bren’s talk it was an evening of inspiration and good company illustrated throughout with the most beautiful prints.

Thank you again to Bren for giving up her time to share her work, we hope she will visit again in the future.

Oran kindly joined us on 16th February to open this years Talking prints programme.  Oran’s multi-media prints were captivating and although simple in design their precision and quality were staggering.

Oran kindly shared his journey from art college to his present pratice. His relaxed manner and honesty about his projects and work made the evening fly by.   Through his work Oran explained how he was able to combine of a variety of processes from different disciplines with digital media. These multi-media pieces had the skill and precision of a master printmaker and all the luminosity of the highest quality digital print.

Oran’s visit left us all feeling inspired by the potential of combining the  digital and traditional mediums when so many artists often see them as different worlds.

Jane Bennett and Nuala Ryding are this years Fellowship Artists for Artlab contemporary print studios.  They have been given the opportunity to develop their work within printmaking over this coming year alongside our other Artlab members.  You can view some of their works in our corridor gallery ourside the studios at UCLAN all month along with some of our AA2A artists.