Ollie Norris

Belkis Ayón Exhibition and Pitt Rivers Museum- Oxford

Our trip to see the artworks of Belkis Ayón was fantastic, what strikes me about this work is its huge scale, created from individually printed plates that are then assembled together. I don’t know why I had never thought about this very simple idea, rather than using huge plates that don’t fit in presses like in Unit One. Seeing the works looking so successful at this scale definitely gave me a need to push the size of my own work. The subjects of Ayon’s fantastic collagraphs are also fascinating, depicting the Abakuá mythological character, Princess Sikán. There is a very strange esoteric feel to all of these works, characterised by their strange shadow figures with piercing white eyes, often clad in strange fish-scaled armour. The works were really magical to see, and it was interesting to see some of the collagraph plates that Ayón had used, next to the work itself. With Printmaking, I feel it can be very easy to heighten certain mediums such as etching and lithography, because of their use of prestigious materials such as copper and stone, and because of their classical use by greats such as Rembrandt and Géricault, and I myself am guilty of this, however, this project has really allowed me to realise that the materiality of the process is always secondary to its use and desired effect. Here, the cardboard collagraph plates create these beautifully rich and fantastic prints, without the need for expense.

I found the Pitt Rivers Museum to be very interesting, less so for the contents of the items within, but for the sheer amount of them, their classification and curation within the museum itself. On walking into the museum, you are transported to a 19th century explorer’s hoard. There are hundreds of thousands of items on display in antique wooden cabinets, and even more hidden away in little draws underneath them. We were also told that what was on display is but a fraction of what the collection holds in storage. I have always been interested in the idea of these travelling Wunderkammers and old travellers’ cabinets of curiosities, this has always been an element of my interests that I would love to explore within my work.

Natural History Museum, Research Dept. Visit

I really enjoyed this visit to the Natural History Museum’s scientific imaging labs. I found myself more interested in the machinery and potions and vials than the things they were looking at through them! The tiny staubs and labeled vials reminded me of some old fashioned Wunderkammer. I would really like to look at some of my own samples through this machine, specifically some of the lovely mud from Norfolk that contains Prussian blue, this mud stains the local cockles a beautiful rich navy colour. Seeing this thick salty substance through a microscope would be unbelievably interesting.

Tom Hammick- Studio Visit

I was so happy to visit the studio of Tom Hammick, his generosity and enthusiasm about his work, as well as his excitement to speak to us was really lovely. It’s often easy to think that when trying to get a foot on the ladder in the art world that everyone is against you and won’t want to help, meeting Tom definitely instilled me with some hope that this isn’t always the case. Although Tom’s work isn’t necessarily to my taste, his methods of print are really fantastic. I particularly enjoyed the piece in the middle, depicting people sat on a ski lift; the immense scale of this work, as well as the unbelievable shimmering depth to the whites were really fantastic. As mentioned before, Tom’s style may not be completely up my street, but his attitudes to artwork and printmaking echo a lot of my own. Tom repeatedly talked about the tactile sensory elements of print that really excite me too, the lovely warm smell of linseed oil and the thick viscosity of ink, he described these as like ‘sweets’, which I completely understand- one of my own first experiences of printmaking was walking into the Camberwell etching studio and instantly being hit by this gorgeous smell of ink and white spirit and oils. The subject of Tom’s beautiful work was also really interesting. Despite his jolly demeanour and very colourful, cheerful work, Tom spoke about his unhappy childhood and struggles with mental health. A really lovely phrase that Tom mentioned has stuck in my head since our visit to the studio, he stated that his work was his own ‘quiet defiance’ against a very hostile and sad world. This really resonated with me and my own work, I choose not to create work about political matters and choose to instead surround myself with the complete antithesis to the nasty and scary stuff around me, being in the landscape is my own quiet defiance against a sad and depressing world.

Original Print Fair- Somerset House

The Original Print Fair was probably the most fantastic collection of work that I had seen in person, the collection consisting of Dali’s woodcuts, Ackroyd’s spit bites, Paul Nash’s engravings were awe inspiring. A few pieces at the fair particularly interested me, one of which was the beautiful multiple panelled large scale etching by Maite Cascón. Like the Belkis Ayón pieces, this really interested me in taking print to a larger scale. It was interesting that when speaking to the artist, she stated that the whole image was not planned out from the beginning, with plates being created separately and added on to complete the image. As these plates were not drawn, aquatinted or printed together, the artist had to keep meticulous notes on the printing process. This really helped me to work out how I could print my own larger pieces, and in fact, I decided to not follow how Cascón made this piece, instead choosing to ink and print together, as I don’t believe I would have the skills to create such a consistent print in different pieces, printed at different times!

I was also really excited to see a large body of Norman Ackroyd’s work in the flesh. I very sadly missed out on Ackroyd’s large exhibition at Eame’s Fine Art last year and have seriously regretted it ever since, luckily, the Eames stall at the print fair had the whole collection that was on display and more! They very kindly allowed me to paw through this large collection. For me, Ackroyd’s moodiness and darkness within his work is a massive inspiration, I think that his work definitely contains this melancholic aura to it that really translates to the viewer. His beautiful use of high contrast whites, greys and blacks master light in a similar way to Turner, but for Ackroyd, this doesn’t come across as some over dramatised image of the Sublime, it comes across as very still and thoughtful, with a much larger air of melancholy. My only criticism of Ackroyd, especially after seeing so many pieces in person, was the fact that his images start to feel formulaic, mountain, sea, cloud, configured and reconfigured in a hundred ways. This is something I don’t want my own work to fall into, I think it’s easy for the landscape to become formulaic, especially when drawing from the same places, and as such it’s important to me to find interesting compositions that feel exciting and fresh, and that convey something new with every piece.

Another interesting collection I saw were the fantastic cloud etchings by Ian Malhotra, although these pieces are a little bit too linear and illustrative to my taste, their expressions of clouds through vertical lines were fantastic. I also really loved the fact that these prints were created with a white line on beautiful black Somerset Velvet paper, which I will be investing in. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen an etching take this form. The beautiful control over these lines were fantastic, and I think that clouds are an amazing aspect of the landscape that really grip me.

Perhaps one of my favourite artists that I discovered at the Original Print Fair was Gregor Smith. I approached Gregor for an interview but sadly didn’t hear anything back from him. Gregor’s mezzotints really capture some fantastic light, and this light is dramatised and animated in such a beautiful way, acting as a medium to highlight a very dark and silhouetted landscape. I love the mezzotint for its deep and brooding black qualities, and its very beautiful softness. I think that Gregor’s work occupies a similar space to Ackroyd’s in my head. The lovely thoughtful stillness in his work really shines through and shows a much softer side to the landscape.

Interview with Ailbhe Barrett- ‘Coalescence’, Carborundum Print

I think that Ailbhe Barret’s piece, Coalescence was probably the most exciting piece of work that I had seen at the print fair. The beautifully subtle use of multiple plates of carborundum create this really haunting, ‘dying of the light’ landscape. The subtle and very gentle use of colour is really fantastic, and in my opinion, overshadowed the fantastic work of Hughie O’Donoghue that it was situated next to. I reached out to Ailbhe and she was generous enough to let me have a short interview with her over Zoom, I have attached the audio recording of this interview below. In our interview, I discussed with Ailbhe about the importance of place within her landscape work. She mentioned something that really resonated with me, she stated that most of her work is about the landscape in Limerick, where she grew up, and that after moving to Dublin, she felt more of a draw back to illustrate these places. This is obviously something that is reflected within my own work, after moving to London, I felt this very real need to go and draw from Lancashire and Norfolk, and there is a definite desire to create work about these places after a separation from them has formed. We also discussed the motif of memory and time in nature, and for Ailbhe, this materialises through trees.For Ailbhe, the landscape holds this sentience and memory that sees humanity come and go, this notion of deep time and some greater power within nature is a huge aspect of my work, and I feel that we definitely connected over this notion. We discussed the use of printmaking as a medium, and for Barrett, a painter-printmaker, who works pretty much 50/50 between the both mediums, she discusses that certain images call for being either a print or a painting, and this is very apparent in selecting the imagery before creating the artwork. The sky is obviously a massively important quality in my own work, and I see this also in Ailbhe’s gorgeous pieces. I think that Barrett shares similar feelings around this to myself, for her the sky connects to this vast insignificance we feel, and a connection to heavenly bodies. It was very helpful to talk to a fellow landscape artist whose imagery is so successful in achieving a very atmospheric, thoughtful and moving response from the viewer. It is deeply comforting to know that people experience the same feelings and reasonings behind making work about nature as me, I’m very grateful for Ailbhe giving up her time to speak to me.

Hughie O’Donoghue- ‘Around the House’, Carborundum Print

I had never heard of Hughie O’Donoghue’s work before the original print fair but I was absolutely amazed to see this piece in person. The colours that O’Donoghue employs are absolutely fantastic, offering a warm Autumnal vibe. The criss-crossing fields are such a lovely and recognisable aspect of the countryside, and this destroyed old farmhouse in the middle reminds me of the old disused barns in North Norfolk. I was surprised to see that a lot of O’Donoghue’s previous work was intensely dark and macabre, his paintings describing these almost Biblical forms contorted in a very organic feeling sea of colour, or works on tall dark ships at sea that feel like a more modern form of Turner’s famous depictions of mast ships and galleons at war in a stormy sea. These works are contrasted with the more calm domestic and rural scenes, such as ‘Around the House’ above. Even then, however, this piece contains a strange darkness to it that contrasts with the lovely warm colours, the broken section of roof, and the situation of this house alone, starts to generate ideas of loneliness and abandonment. There is definitely a pervading melancholy behind this piece that connects it to his previous work. I was excited to learn that Hughie is a fellow Mancunian, and his piece really inspired me to try out carborundum printmaking as it felt like a perfect bridge between my moody monotypes and the more visceral and deep qualities of intaglio printmaking. After trying out carborundum, I realise that it does not achieve what I want to go for right now, but it is something that I will definitely return to and pursue in the future.

A Visit to the Abbeyleix Bogs,

The Abbeyleix Bog is an ancient landscape that feels intensely strange and alien. In a lot of ways it reminds me of the Stiffkey salt marshes, with its intense flat quality and interesting low-lying flora. The bog feels almost like a coral reef, with some of the largest colonies of beautiful blue-green lichen bursting from every piece of deadwood I’ve ever seen. Meanwhile, the strange red reeds are beautifully reflected in the still glassy waters, creating this strange, curly eldritch mess of tangled grasses. Exploring a different landscape to my usual ones was really worthwhile for me, although I don’t see myself making work about this place right now, because it has no rich history or deep resonance that relates to me personally, viewing different places and seeing different compositions of landscape, really expands your knowledge of the landscapes that you are acquainted with and used to. I think the bogs really made me want to experiment with colour again, and I will most likely come back to these spaces once the MA is over to create work about them.

Working at Puck Studios- A Digital Fine Art Print Studio in Bethnal Green,

Over Easter, I worked for three weeks in Puck Studio, I was offered the opportunity to work here by my friend, Sarah, who I completed my BA with. It was very interesting to see a completely different side of print than what I was used to, and how working with print happens in a commercial context. Sadly, because I was new to the company, I was put on the jobs for commercial clients, rather than for artists. I did, however, create signage and advertising for huge companies such as War Child and Don Julio Tequila, which was fantastic experience. I was primarily working on a solvent based digital printer, pictured on the top left, and I took the design from the clients file, to a prepared piece of artwork, ready to print, to printing, lamination and on one job, I got to install the material myself. The star of working in this studio however, was using the flatbed DTM printer, which is a machine I didn’t even know existed. This digital printer could print on any material up to 12″ tall, and the staff at Puck were constantly pushing this printer to its limits to create innovative fine art printwork for artist clients. This printer could also print with white ink and a gloss varnish, meaning that you could create raised pieces of artwork. I have been asked to come back to work at the studio over Summer, and after the course has finished, the owner has asked me to work there on a more permanent basis. Although this is not the ideal print job for me, it is a great step to take in my career trajectory. I would be excited to work with the DTM printer and to experiment with its uses. I have already researched into its uses and believe I could create digital relief prints by printing with the raised varnish. As far as my research tells me, the varnish the printer uses resists acid, and can be washed away with white spirit, meaning that this printer should be able to create super high definition ‘screen’ etch resist plates, without the need of using a negative, or hydro coat or photopolymer etching plates.

Back to Norfolk,

My trip back to Norfolk was invaluable in my primary research for this project. Like being in Manchester, being in this place really re-energises my ability to create work, and the writing and sketches I made here were integral to the rest of the unit. I went down to the marshes to draw in the daytime when the tide was low, before retreating back to dry land to capture these mesmerising sunsets. I took my dad’s old DSLR and photographed these sunsets with it, and now, I have over 200 original images of this beautiful place to use as points of reference.

Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers Show- Bankside Gallery

I was really impressed with the work at this recent show at the Bankside Gallery, it was lovely to see a very diverse range of artwork, including some by Tony Lee, which is always great to see in a gallery setting!

I have always been very interested in the work of Fiona Fouhy, and this piece, ‘Quietly Forming’ was no exception. The depth and level of detail in her mono prints are simply astounding, and always make me stop and spend a good amount of time with her work. I love Fouhy’s use of ghost prints in the background to really push the image back, giving her work this really hazy, wet look. Fouhy is always a massive inspiration in my mono prints, especially of my prints around Healey Dell, with their dense vegetation. I have recently booked a space to a talk with Fiona at Eames Fine Art Gallery on Bermondsey Street next month and I’m ecstatic to be able to hear directly from the artist about her work.

Another work I was interested in at the Bankside Gallery, was ‘Inlet’, by Susan Moxhay. This print is a ‘duotone photogravure with watercolour’, Moxhay uses photomontage and assembled sets to create her imagery. In all honesty, I don’t like the overt scariness in her work, with a lot of it feeling a little bit ‘Cabin in the Woods’, however, in this piece, it was the sky that really captured me. The way the light comes down in shafts to illuminate the subject of the piece is really lovely, and it’s dark qualities, due to it’s medium as photogravure are really rich.

National Art Library- V&A Museum,

Going to the V&A’s National Art Library was a really lovely experience that allowed me to take out some very old and expensive books to use as reference. Amongst my favourite books that I brought out was a facsimile of J.M.W Turner’s last sketchbook(i), I have always loved Turner’s small scale sketches and studies for larger work, and frequently go and view the small collection of them at the Tate Britain. In this collection of small sketches, the biggest takeaways for me were Turner’s almost chemical landscapes. The vast majority of his work in this small book is a very binary depiction of sky/land, sea/land, or sky/sea, but depicted in the most fantastic way. Turner takes all the base elements of the landscape and depicts them in the most beautiful and subtle form. Pages that just contained a well placed streak of pale ochre watercolour, instantly manifest in the mind as a sandbar against an overcast day. Furthermore, Turner always does a great job of delineating the natural world, and the manmade world in his work through his delicate use of strokes. We see emotive and haphazard brushstrokes in the sea, sky and land, whereas the masts of ships protrude from these more abstract marks as strong and deliberate straight lines. I wrote in my notes that the beauty of Turner’s sketches lie in the fact that when the detail is lost, you begin to attribute these streaks of abstract colour to the landscapes you know. The sketches begin to materialise as family holidays on far-flung beaches, and memories of rocky seas and beautiful sunsets from the past. This book also contained a lovely little poem by Tracey Emin, which I very much enjoyed reading.

I also took out a very old book on Hercules Seghers’ process(ii), which gave recipes on how to create the special sugar lift solution the artist used in a pen to draw his plates in-situ, as well as a detailed recipe on the ground used in the process. I had no idea that this style of etching with sugar lift was possible, and in my head, I’d always considered it as a more painterly process, than a drawing process, however I’m now so excited to go out into the wilds with my plates and draw directly onto them. This book also really excited me about the Seghers print I had requested to view at the Print and Drawing rooms just a couple of days later.

I also took out a beautiful book from the special collections of Paul Nash’s Wood engravings(iii). I love Paul Nash’s work, especially his wood engravings, and Nash has always inspired me to want to try the medium myself, however, after 6 or 7 miserably failed attempts, coming back to the medium feels harder every time. However, it was comforting to note in this book that Paul Nash’s first few years of wood engraving attempts were shockingly awful, and it was interesting to see his skill and style slowly develop through the work. Wood engraving is definitely a process I’ll return to because of this book.