Artists' Quarter

Paintings

I use oil and acrylic on board and on square box canvases with liberal applications of paint. Sometimes I like to use collage in the form of tissue, gold leaf, sand and Chinese papers to create texture and depth and I may add pastels and watercolour.

Detail from How Stean Gorge

Just as I loved the feel of my fingers on the keyboard when I was a musician, so I adore the texture of paint on my brush and palette knife on the canvas.

I aim for spontaneity, natural marks, free expression. I let the work evolve naturally, manipulating the paint loosely and following my intuition. This means that sometimes a painting may go through many incarnations before I am satisfied.

Detail from Castillo.

Printmaking

My prints tend to be more abstract - I explore the techniques of monoprint, collagraph and drypoint etching to explore the process of time. The prints look so ancient and have a timeless quality.

Monoprints are quick and immediate, but the collagraphs and etchings take much longer to perfect. I have to make the plates and this may take weeks or even months.

Again the process evolves and I move with the changes and chances that occur either naturally or by accident.

Lesley Birch