Intaglio Printmaker Prize Winner: Kit Boyd
It’s that time of year again, and the Intaglio team have been attending plenty of annual exhibitions and group shows to see what’s new in the world of printmaking. We are pleased to announce that Kit Boyd was the recipient of our award at this year’s Festival of Print by East London Printmakers. The team loved the attention to detail and level of fine skill within Kit’s winning piece, and were drawn in by it’s atmospheric, ethereal quality. We caught up with Kit to discover more about his work and what inspires his creative practice.
The Coast Walker by Kit Boyd
The Coast Walker
Etching and aquatint
Edition of 50
Please could you tell us a bit more about the inspiration behind the work?
The Coast Walker is inspired by a holiday on the Isle of Seil in Western Scotland some years ago. I made a painting of it in 2020 when we were all unable to travel, and it’s more a dreamlike memory of the place rather than a topographical view.
What made you get into printmaking?
My first few etchings were made in 1989 when I did my degree in Visual Art at Aberystwyth University, but I went on to specialise in photography and painting. In 2010 I was making detailed pen and ink drawings of landscapes inspired by Samuel Palmer and thought they would work well as etchings. In 2011 I enrolled at Morley College to relearn the techniques. I quickly realised how much I liked it, helped by a great teacher in Richard Michell, who is sadly no longer with us. I stayed there until 2015 and learned most printmaking techniques.
Tell us about your other works – are they similar or different? Do you tend to work within one technique?
I’ve been making more colourful linocuts over the last few years and now tend to move easily between techniques, from collagraph to linocut to etching. I quite often make a painting that turns into a print, and enjoy hand colouring some of my editioned etchings when I don’t have access to my press.
What would be on your ultimate Intaglio Printmaker wish list?
Big ink rollers are always on my mind!
If you could own 1 artwork, what would it be?
Early Morning by Samuel Palmer. It’s a difficult choice to pick just one of the sepia drawings in the Ashmolean.
Process images: Top left- etching The Coast Walker onto copper. Bottom left – stopped out aquatint.
Right – detail of drawing the etching
Kit Boyd - About the artist
Exploring our relationship with nature, Kit’s art fuses the pastoral and surreal. He follows in the British romantic tradition of the neo-romantics of the 1940s and Samuel Palmer. While primarily known as a printmaker, he also works in collage and painting. In 2024 he was elected as an Assoicate to the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. Recently he has completed commissions for English Heritage, created a linocut book jacket for Penguin Random House’s reprint of The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono (published July 2022), and in 2022 made posters for 6 train stations in Kent on the Darent Valley from Sevenoaks to Swanley, including a homage to Samuel Palmer at Shoreham. He is also a member of Greenwich Printmakers Association, the Printmakers Council and East London Printmakers. His prints and paintings are widely collected and are in the public collections of the Scarborough Museums Trust, the V&A, Sevenoaks District Council, Aberystwyth University, and the Ashmolean.
Congratulations on your win, Kit!
Follow along with Kit’s work and processes with social media:
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Process images: The finished plate on the press
