Intaglio Printmaker Prize Winner: Lucy Jones
Intaglio Printmaker are pleased to announce that Lucy Jones was the recipient of our award at this year’s Stirling Festival of Print. Lucy’s winning print ‘He Was Very Kind To Me’, combined intaglio, collagraph and chine colle. The print stood out for its confident use of layered techniques, the balance between ambiguous collage and geometric structure, and the use of an earthy palette that reinforced the raw, material quality of the piece.Â
Lucy Jones - He Was Very Kind to Me
He Was Very Kind To Me
39 x 39cm
Intaglio with Collagraph and Chine Colle (on White Somerset Paper)
Unique Print
Please could you tell us a bit more about the inspiration behind the work?Â
My work is process and materials based – I start with play and experimentation, combining different materials and mediums in ways that I’ve not done before – aiming for an effect, mark, shape, surface that I’ve not made or seen before. So I love a grid – visually simple and without other meaning, I can then let the alchemy of the materials the printing process do their thing.
And I love collage – collecting and layering, found and foraged papers, the older the better, as many shades of white, cream and brown as possible.
This piece is the result of two simple inked up plates, pink and the umber, planned and controlled, put through the press with a chosen palette of paper shapes (chine colle). Then the printing press does it’s thing in a way that I can’t quite predict – the result being a unique combination of the materials and inked marks, layering and overlapping in so many different ways.
I just love that I can facilitate but not totally control the printed results, and that I can endlessly keep finding different details and marks in the piece the more I look at it, not quite knowing how they were created or that I could exactly create them again.
I do my playing and experimenting in my own studio with all my many materials and tools around me, on my small (ish) press, then when I’ve consolidated an idea I might scale it up on the big presses at Edinburgh Printmakers. Using their Intaglio Printmaker inks!
What made you get into printmaking?Â
I’ve always worked with collage and mixed media (for the past 15 years), and just over a year ago I did an etching course as I suspected it could give me the fine, precise marks I wanted, to combine with my torn more random collage edges. And it does. It allows me to combine materials and processes without quite knowing what will result from the press – a balance of control, structure and chaos.
Tell us about your other works – are they similar or different? Do you tend to work within one technique?
All my work is based on simple geometric shapes, minimal meaning and association, that allow the materials and processes – the beauty and fascination of the physical details, marks and effects – to be the focus of the piece.
I’m inspired by combinations of techniques, doing something that I don’t yet know how to do! It might be stencil with emboss, collagraph on a tetrapak plate, whatever combination I arrive at from an experimental process, but there’s almost always some collage included.
What would be on your ultimate Intaglio Printmaker wish list?
Lots of printing paper– different coloured and textured. I’ve a very short creation/attention span and often start a printing session using one colour and intention and change my mind from print to print, to see the different effects of the ink or collage I’m using on the different surfaces. BFK Rives in all the colours, especially the tan and black, and some Charbonnel Etching ink in Snow White to experiment with white grids on the soft dark papers.
If you could own one artwork, what would it be?
Something by Agnes Martin – a soft, minimal, repeating grid to contemplate when my mind is too full of all things busy and digital.
Lucy Jones - About the artist
My printmaking practice combines my love of aged and imperfect surfaces with that of simple geometric shapes. I’m looking for the sweet spot between structure and chaos using multiple layers of ink and paper collage.
By using collagraph plates rather than traditional printing plate materials, I’m able to work intuitively and respond to results during the inking and printing process, amending and adjusting and embracing discoveries in accidents and imperfections.
No two prints can be exactly the same. Due to the nature of the materials, each inking up produces different marks, and I add colour via vintage collage papers, none of which can be replicated – many shades of neutral. So each pull through the press has an element of surprise and chance, adding to the unpredictability and serendipity of the result.
Through removing any subject or meaning, I aim to create something that is beautiful in its simple complexity and perfect imperfection.
Originally from mid Wales, I studied Visual Studies at Norwich School of Art and Design. I moved to Edinburgh in 2012 and have since been selected to show in the Visual Arts Scotland, Royal Scottish Academy and Society of Scottish Artists opens and had a number of solo exhibitions at private galleries. I recently won the Ironbridge Fine Arts Printmaking Competition printmakers prize.
I work from my studio in Stockbridge, Edinburgh and Edinburgh Printmakers.
Congratulations on your win, Lucy!
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