Art is the key to happiness

At the free Artist Talk held at The Sanctuary Gallery in Newnham on Friday the 17th February, it was clear to hear that art is the key to happiness. At least that’s what the local community are saying. 

With its limited  number of spaces, this Artist Talk for the current exhibition PRINT was booked up within hours of releasing the registration form, leaving many disappointed that they weren’t able to attend and demonstrating the popularity of events like these and an appetite for more.

At 6pm guests were welcomed into the gallery to preview the art being showcased by 5 exciting local multidisciplinary printmakers before heading upstairs to the working artist studio to hear about their various processes, inspiration and printmaking techniques.

Each printmaker took ten minutes to speak about some chosen artworks before revealing their methods and unique approach to their printmaking process, finishing with a Q&A session. As one member of the audience said, it was a night of enormous generosity and vulnerability with artists sharing their processes and encouraging a personal response to their art, helping the audience develop a true sense of appreciation for printmaking as an original and genuine art form.

The audience of 25 enjoyed a wine and deli selection, great conversation and a rare opportunity to meet the artists and share conversation with like minded people.

Printmaker Melanie Clarke explained that being open minded to spontaneous results and happy accidents through experimentation of different print making techniques is really key to her enjoyment of printmaking, emphasizing that she loves the physicality of the process. For her, the actual journey and evolution of each print, inspired by her response to the natural world, is the most personally rewarding. She further detailed a little about stone litho printing process and her use of natural pigments.

Using her hare design to demonstrate, Sarah Delahoy explained the fascinating way of creating collagraph prints using a variety tools and ‘found’ objects to achieve different textures and marks which are transferred onto the print. Although she loves the experimental process of creating collograph prints, she does start out with detailed drawings in her sketchbooks to plan the composition and design of each piece.

Nichola Goff has been screenprinting onto translucent Japanese paper to create a conversation within the artwork itself by encouraging light to pass through the print and highlight details. With her ecological views firmly rooted, she uses photographs to help capture moments in time to explore human response to nature and the wellbeing this connection offers. Her work is about connecting people to place and to land and thinking about our connection to the natural world.

With a specific story or theme in mind, Patricia Homewood begins her printmaking process with real life references and sketches, inspired by poetry, legends and memories to create multilayered prints using the lino cutting or reduction print process. She explained that although her stylised work looks well planned in terms of its design, she often starts with just one thing before adding further details and letting the image come together in a more organic fashion.

Nikki Kent’s vibrant prints clearly illustrate her love of shape colour texture pattern using mono printing as her preferred technique. Although she’s currently limiting her colour palette, her collective work is a riot of colour with many botanical elements being incorporated with hand picked and dries grasses and foliage. She finds joy in experimenting which ignites her imagination.

From listening to the these artists and the audience’s response to hearing about their prints and approach to the printmaking process, it’s clear that art brings joy from the perspective of both artist and viewer.

Here at Canopy we are pleased to be able to sponsor these events so that people can get together to enjoy art and the creative community. The next Artist Talk will be on March 18th at The Sanctuary Gallery with Andrea McLean and Leigh Sladen during the Mythos exhibition which starts 4th March.