Etched Landscape is about the environment, more specifically, the meeting points between land and water. This includes coastlines, lochs, the peat bogs of Glencoe, the Angus hills, and the Cairngorms. I love being in nature through all the seasons, but I particularly enjoy drawing trees in winter, when the structure of the branches and twigs is visible, and so are the negative spaces between them. The form of the tree is clearer without the softening of leaves and undergrowth.
I begin the process of printmaking by doing a drawing or painted sketch on location, supported by photographs. This combination is useful when I start to draw the image onto the metal plate. Sometimes I work on time-based projects where the elements themselves create marks – traces of the passage of time. I might leave an early proof of a print outdoors near the subject, allowing the environment to leave its own marks in dialogue with mine. I’ve buried prints in riverbeds, left them beneath trees, and submerged them under the sea through several tides. I often feel that these additional marks enrich the image and make it truly unique.
