A few years ago I came across the brilliant catalogue of early twentieth century images British Prints from the Machine Age, edited by Clifford S Ackley. This collection discusses the work of a number of British printmakers working between 1914 and 1939 who applied the pioneering art movements from Europe such as Modernism, Futurism, Cubism and Abstraction to their work in a variety of block printing techniques.
I had always dabbled in home printing but this drew me towards more serious and practical endeavours. I attended a short course in relief printing at the Bip-Art printmaking studios in Brighton, led by the Sussex landscape artist and printer Helen Brown. With her patient help and encouragement I was able to join the studio and gained open access to their superbly antique Columbian flat bed printing press, which was constructed in 1844.
The majority of my prints are figurative, although I enjoy the occasional drift towards abstraction. Influences tend to come from in the inter-war years of the twentieth century and I often construct my images from found photographs of that era. Subject matter has included film, theatre, transport, fashion, music and sport and more recently POP art derived from vintage comics.
My favourite technique is the lino reduction print, where a single block is progressively reduced to overlay different colours. This has the advantage that each colour is slightly modified by the previous one and in my opinion produces a more coherent tonal range. For the collector this also ensures that the number of prints specified in the edition is permanently fixed because the block is progressively destroyed in the printing process.
In recent years I have exhibited successfully at both The Brighton Festival (Open Houses) and The Affordable Art Fair in Battersea Park, London. I hope you enjoy the prints exhibited here and I welcome any comments or questions about the work.
Alan White
January 2017