Lacking any formal arts Education, I came to printmaking by a circuitous route. I started taking photographs as a part of my University course back in 1966 and I've been clicking away ever since, largely on urban subjects. Intermittently, I've also been dabbling in other media. I did some sketching, also as a part of my degree and about 20 years ago I enrolled on an arts course at my local college. I just didn't have the time to put into it though and that fizzled away.
About eight years ago, I began to scan in some old Victorian family photographs and some of my own very faded slides taken in the '60s and '70s. Many of the slides were in appalling condition - faded, fungal growth, peeling emulsion and in the process of restoring them I had to do a create deal of 'recreation'. This one for example involved almost totally recreating the sky.
This started like this:
After a while I realised that what I was doing for restoration could be done for its own purpose, leading on to a range of digital prints, of which these are some early examples.
http://www.fotolog.com/ibanda/1387675
http://www.fotolog.com/ibanda/1568919
http://www.fotolog.com/ibanda/3067614
After a while I started trying to sell these at craft fairs and in local shops, with only moderate success I have to say.
I used to get my pictures mounted and framed at a place that also made traditional 'handpulled' prints for major London galleries. One day when collecting some work, the framer invited me to look around the printing workshop. In there I had the chance to look at a linocut block made by Gillian Ayres, waiting to be printed and some other work by Howard Hodgkin. I found it fascinating to see the work in progress rather than just the final piece. In fact I found it so interesting that I enrolled within a week for a print making workshop at my local college. I'm now in my third year and enjoying every minute of it.
So far I have worked in dry point, linocut, collagraph, solar etching and monoprint. Many of these have been uploaded to my flickr account or are available for sale on my own site.
From printmaking, I moved on to painting with acrylics and collage, but perhaps I should draw a veil over much of these for now...
