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The Americas Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Prints 2008 Selections for Exhibition |
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The Kyrgyz Narrator Hilary Wilson |
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| Artist's Statement | ||
From earlier years it has been second nature to me to have a sketchbook at hand, discreetly observing people and animals—rather as another might write or talk. I attended art School, completing the National Diploma five-year course, which included wood engraving. I taught art for a year. I was then able to continue my music studies and found myself welcomed into the professional world of music as a harpist. Along career in this field ensued—much of it as Principal Harpist for the Royal Opera Covent Gardens, London. Throughout that period I maintained annual production of a Christmas card, working into the small hours if necessary; and I kept up my love of wood engraving making book plates and letter-headings for friends, The hunger for this form of expression was ever present under the surface of my music commitments/which essentially had first call on my attention. Now, free from these ties as a full-time musician, I can fully indulge in my long-repressed passion for wood engraving, a medium which never fails to inspire and energize my aspirations as an artist.
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| Statement of Artistic Process | ||
As a wood engraver I work on the end-grain of medium-hard woods, boxwood when available [sources of this are now depleted—mostly due to the wood engraving illustration ‘factory’ industry of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Boxwood produces the finest, most reliable results for both cutting and printing. Of the plastics now available I’ve used Resingrave with success [epoxy-resin mounted on chipboard]. My roots are little different from those developed by the so-called ‘father of English wood engraving,’ Thomas Bewick [1753–1828]. I have so far, kept to these traditional blades. I prepare a design from sketches in my notebooks [only occasionally resorting to photographic material of my own taking]. I tend to let the engraving, as it progresses, dictate further development--textures and nuances [risky perhaps--but my preferred approach]. I then trace this design, which is in outline only, onto the surface of the selected block, which I will have darkened very slightly by rolling black printing ink over and then immediately wiping it off, leaving the block surface just discoloured. I then ‘establish’ the tracing with black ‘pigment liner’ pen and ‘fix’ the design further with a fixative spray. The drawing will then remain visible to guide me even after weeks of engraving & trial printing. As I start to engrave, the original pale colour of the wood is revealed, and the effects I want begin to emerge and perhaps, to take over from my original intention and with better effect. When the roller with its ink is applied, the ink remains on the block’s surface--thus the term relief printing. The engraved lines & areas reveal themselves as whatever shade of paper is used for the print, usually white. With the various shaped points of the tools one can achieve, as wished, a variety of subtle gradations of tone within the chosen ink colour and that of the paper colour, black & white being traditionally the most effective contrast [with the grey’s produced by the textures] to reveal the beauty of a wood engraving. I print on a book-press [or screw-press] which takes a paper size 13 inches square. I sometimes, in addition, burnish with a baren disc.
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| Bio | ||
Five years art school training & diplomas, including wood engraving [1953–57] 2008 2007 2006
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Copyright © 2008 The Americas Biennial Exhibtion