Pressing Matters magazine - Issue 7

Finding inspiration for a print or even a series of work is sometimes a daunting task

– knowing where to start can be a tricky thing. In this issue we speak to

a fascinating mix of makers, all with very different ways of working but all sharing a big love for print.

We explore how they use shape, colour and texture with ink and paper to create something

totally unique to themselves. Be it describing landscapes, imagined or real, like Nicholas Perra

and Andy Lovell, or using found objects and paper cut scraps for abstract prints like Claire Willberg

and Jonathan Lawes, it’s a real joy to see how people play with print.

How an artist chooses to tell a story through their prints is always interesting and

it’s been a pleasure this issue to talk to comic artist and printmaker Jon McNaught about

his process of capturing ‘small moments’ in print and on the page.

There are tales in the tree ring prints by Nice Art People, stories in the ethereal cyanotypes

of Craig Keenan and an animated fable of a journey into the afterlife

(made using collagraph prints) by Marine Rivoal & Claire Sichez.

Another epic journey features in this issue, with Jack Blake and Barbara Salvadori packing

 their panniers and ‘cycling the paper road’ in search of papermakers, absorbing

their unique knowledge and techniques – and finding that although the tools and

 people may be different the world over, they share a love for the handmade. 

Wherever you find inspiration, be sure to put it in your prints.