RUTH KEMP
Artist and Graphic Designer

For me printmaking is a very challenging medium which often takes me outside my comfort zone.  I enjoy the way that by losing control of the outcome I often create a more interesting artwork as a result.

I have recently created a series of fairly graphic coloured lino-cut prints by a process called “reduction”.  This process uses the same block for all the colours, printing from lightest to darkest colours, as you cut away the block for the next it is not possible to go back and reprint if you aren’t happy with the outcome!

Another series is “America 1956” based on some very old slides taken by my father on a business trip in that year.  These are printed from copper plates by an etching process called aquatint.  To create an aquatint the plate is coated with a porous substance then starting with the lightest tone the shapes are blocked out and the plate is subsequently dipped in an acid bath to creating the different tonal areas.  The prints are created by rubbing ink into the surface of the finished plate and printed under pressure on an etching press.

“Seasons” is an edition of large prints which combine three printing processes, woodblock (the tree), collograph (background) and screenprinting (leaves).  Woodblock is a type of relief print where the ink is applied to carved wood plate or block; a collograph plate is created by sticking objects onto a surface to create texture and inked to create a print; screenprinting is a process in which a mask is applied to a silk screen and ink is forced through the screen onto the paper.