Gwen BLACK
(images on the right are examples only of this artist's work, unless otherwise indicated, and not necessarily available)
Gwen has been exhibiting her work extensively over the years: venues include The Lemon Tree, Peacock Visual Arts, The Bridge, Conoco UK Ltd. Grampian Hospital Arts Trust, Milton Gallery, Carbyart, The Art Institute of Seattle, USA, Aberdeen Art Gallery and the RSA Edinburgh.
With an Honours degree in Fine Art from Grays School of Art in Aberdeen, specialising in Printmaking, she set up her studio in the West Highlands of Scotland in 2005, working as a full time artist while teaching courses in printmaking and other art techniques. In 2006 she and her husband Fred were pivotal in setting up the Highlands Open Studios event. With financial assistance from the Lotteries Commission and Hi-Arts, they produced a printed all year round comprehensive directory of artist in the Highlands and website www.highlandsopenstudios.co.uk
Gwen says:
‘At the moment my work, essentially, is about the environment…….urban and rural…. hard edged architecture living side by side with soft edged nature. The defined lines and strict angles of man made structures juxtaposed with the ebb and flow of natural growth. The passage of time, the ravages of the elements causing dilapidation, deterioration, and the regenerative powers of nature.
As my discipline is Printmaking, all my works begins with this process. I work mainly on Perspex plates, additively and reductively, as the immediacy this allows creates a more painterly way of printmaking. I also use woodcut plates for large blocks of colour and to emboss a surface on to my work. Using a mixture of media, acrylic paint, bee’s wax, oil pastel, etc., I continue working instinctively. Each piece evolves in its own right……each new mark, division and subdivision of colour is worked in direct response to the last, creating a surface which proves its own history in its attempt to assimilate the subject matter and ensuring that every final piece is individual and unique.’
