Print-making with Jackie Curtis

Well known Somerset based artist, Jackie Curtis, gave  a highly entertaining demonstration of how she produces her distinctive collage prints.

She showed how collagraphy can be great fun and during the evening produced some original prints from blocks formed from a collage of materials with interesting textures.

Jackie’s inspiration is often drawn from scenes and wildlife to be found close to her home near Bridgwater and on the evening she chose a scene from the North Somerset coast.

Shapes are cut from all sorts of materials such as lace, leaves, leather, fabrics, feathers – whatever you can find that has an interesting texture. These are then glued to a base plate and inked before a piece of paper is applied and pressed down to transfer the image. Even novices can produce very satisfying results if they don’t mind getting inky fingers.

At the end of the evening, Mike Bird, the current chairman of OVAS remarked on how inspiring it was to watch someone as talented and creative as Jackie at work and that this was certainly a demonstration that would have made those watching be keen to have a go themselves.

Whilst Jackie is an expert, not only with collagraphy but also with monoprints, linocuts and woodblocks, many people might embark on their own artistic journey using these techniques and who knows where this might lead.

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