Banner artwork: Gini Wade
Print Collectors Club
Established in 2013, Aberystwyth Printmakers Print Collectors Club is a scheme that provides members of the public, the opportunity to purchase high quality Original Prints at affordable prices. Working in collaboration with Master Printer Paul Croft, so far to date, the internationally renowned Welsh artist Mary Lloyd Jones, Ian Phillips (who is fast becoming one of the UK's leading printmakers), Karen Pearce, Stuart Evans, Flora McLachlan and Gini Wade have contributed to the scheme.
Artists invited to participate are asked to make a lithograph that reflects their own art practice. Drawing directly on to stone and / or plate, the images are processed and proofed by Croft and subsequently are printed in limited editions of around 25 - 40 impressions. As the images are proofed the artist decides upon the number of colour runs required and indicates which papers are preferred. Whilst prints undoubtedly are based upon sketches made by the artists - these prints are drawn as independent original images and are not considered as reproductions.
All income raised through the sale of these prints helps Aberystwyth Printmakers to continue promoting printmaking, run classes and provide facilities for printmakers living in Aberystwyth, mid and West Wales.
All prints are for sale at £75 each unframed and can be ordered by contacting Paul Croft or Aberystwyth Printmakers. Payment can be made by cheque made out to Aberystwyth Printmakers – for mail order please add £7.50 for shipping (UK) Payment can also be made by PayPal or by electronic transfer - contact Paul Croft on puc@aber.ac.uk for details
2022
Pete Monaghan
Allt Goch Y Mynydd I
“Neglected and dilapidated places fascinate Pete Monaghan. He has returned to them over and over again until they have become firmly established as the subject matter of his paintings. What is it that draws some of us to the tumbledown, to the make-do, to ramshackle farms and rusting echoes of abandoned barns? These are tatty, unaesthetic places. Many people turn their gaze away from them but, for those with eyes to see them, their forms are beautiful and their stories are compelling. Every detail reflects some labour, the solution to some problem: each boulder in the dry-stone walls was once lifted into place by hand, each patch made in corrugated-iron roofs is the ghost of someone’s ladder-reach. These places all were once the centre of someone’s life.”(Dr. Peter Wakelin 2016)
Pete finds his subjects particularly in the wild, weather-beaten celtic fringes. His fascination with vernacular architecture, especially barns and farmsteads celebrates the beauty and dignity of humble buildings, these subjects share the down-to-earth honesty he strives for in his art. Further information about Pete can be found on his website at: http://www.petemonaghan.com
2021
Ruth Jen Evans
Yr Anfarwolion /The Immortals
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This year's print for Aberystwyth Printmakers Print Collectors Club is Anfarwolion/ The Immortals', a 4-run lithograph by the artist Ruth Jen Evans. Based in Talybont, Aberystwyth. Ruth is a multimedia artist, whose works often incorporate monoprint, linocut, screenprinting, drawing and collage. She also makes work in ceramics, and her current exhibition at MOMA Wales (18 September - 13 November), incorporates film and animation. Printed in collaboration with Master Printer Paul Croft, Anfarwolion' has been drawn with lithographic crayon and tusche wash, and printed in four runs from plate and stone in a limited split-edition of just 30 impressions: 15 on Hahnemuhle and 15 on Rives Cream paper.
This print by Ruth is an attempt to create her own personal mythology and derives in part from some of the recent linocuts and ceramic creatures she has been making. Having been brought up in a close rural community, from early childhood Ruth has been immersed in a strong tradition of story telling, both factual and imaginary. As an artist she sees the images she creates as a continuation of this but through a visual medium rather than the spoken one. She is fascinated by folk tales and fairy tales and often references Welsh stories and folklore in her work.
2019
Shani Rhys James
Combing Her Hair
This year's print for Aberystwyth Printmaker's Print Collector's Club is titled 'Combing Her Hair', a lithograph by the famous Welsh artist Shani Rhys James MBE.
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Shani was born in Melbourne in 1953, but has been living and working in Wales for much of her adult life. Based in Llangadfan in Powys, she is considered to be one of the most exciting and successful painters of her generation, and one of the most significant artists currently working in Wales. Elected a fellow of the Royal Cambrian Academy in 1994, she exhibits her work at galleries across the UK and abroad.
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For this print, Shani says that she was inspired by a woodcut of a woman combing her hair by the Japanese artist Hashiguchi Goyo (1880 - 1921), a print that she had seen exhibited at the British Museum. In the original woodcut, she was interested in the decorative element of the dressing gown, but for this lithograph, the woman has a spotty dressing gown instead, which she feels gives it a more contemporary appearance and makes it somewhat more expressionistic. The cat in the lithograph was added to balance the composition.
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Printed in collaboration with Master Printer Paul Croft, 'Combing Her Hair' has been printed from stone drawn using lithographic crayon and ink and printed in a limited edition of just 25 impressions.
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Gini Wade
2018
Rhiannon's Dream
This year’s print for Aberystwyth Printmakers Print Collectors Club is ‘Rhiannon’s Dream’ by the well known Welsh artist and illustrator Gini Wade. Working from her studio in Llanidloes, in mid-Wales, her art practice ranges across drawing, painting, lithography, relief printing, and animation.
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Gini is a director of Aberystwyth Printmakers and teaches lithography at the Sidney Nolan Trust, Presteigne. She was voted the Best Welsh Artist of 2016 in the National Open Art Competition.
Printed in collaboration with Master Printer Paul Croft, ‘Rhiannon’s Dream’ has been drawn in lithographic crayon and tusche wash, and printed in four runs from plate and stone in a limited split-edition of just 30 impressions on Rives Grey and Somerset Grey papers. The image reflects Gini’s interest in myths and legends, stories from across the globe that deal with our common origins and ancient histories. For this print she has focused upon Rhiannon, the strong female character from the Welsh Mabinogi, along with her enchanted birds, which here are conflated with the magical murmurations of starlings that can often be seen returning to roost beneath Aberystwyth Pier at sunset.
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Website: www.giniwade.com Instagram: @gini.wade
2017
Flora McLachlan RE
Speckled Land
The 2017 artist for Aberystwyth Printmakers Print Collectors Club is the notable Pembrokeshire based artist Flora McLachlan RE. Elected in 2013 as a Fellow of The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE), McLachlan has exhibited her work across the UK. Working principally in etching and lithography, McLachlan's poetic landscapes are a lyrical vision of dappled light and shade, an enchanted realm populated by mythical guardian animals surrounded by wooded hills and shadowy glades. 'Speckled Land' was drawn after travelling between Brynberian and Aberystwyth and observing the unfolding hills from the car. The hedges and trees are shaped by the wind from the sea and small rushy fields shelter the animals grazing there.
Printed in collaboration with Master Printer Paul Croft, this delightful image was drawn with lithographic crayon and tusche wash and printed in five runs from plate and stone in a limited edition of 30 impressions on Grey Rives paper. Further information about Flora McLachlan can be found at: http://www.floramclachlan.co.uk
2016
Stewart Evans
The Edith Eleanor
As Curator of the Collections and Exhibition Designer at The Ceredigion Museum, much of Stuart’s artistic output reflects his curiosity and knowledge of local history, which not surprisingly is closely associated with maritime history, boat building, shipping and trading. Inspired by the tremendous range of artifacts at the museum, Stuart is perhaps best known for his black and white hand-coloured linocuts of boasts. Based upon some of the superb models and paintings to be found at the museum, these colourful prints help to narrate some of the epic journeys made by these vessels, their captains and crew.
The Edith Eleanor: produced as a combined lithograph and linocut with hand colouring, this print depicts the last boat to have ever been built in Aberystwyth in 1881 – the 81 foot long three masted schooner The Edith Eleanor. Captained by William Thomas Jones, this ship travelled as far south to the Mediterranean and as far west as the coast of Labrador – trading Welsh slate and timber for fish and salt. The ship finally met its end in the Bristol Channel in 1921 Further information about Stuart Evans can be found at: http://www.stuartevans.eu
2015
Karen Pearce
Stone Jetty
Known for her dramatic landscape paintings of Aberystwyth and the surrounding countryside of Mid and West Wales, for this original lithograph, Karen has drawn the iconic Stone Jetty breakwater at Aberystwyth Harbour – producing a beautiful print that echoes some of her best known paintings of the same subject. Drawn with lithographic crayon, this six-run lithograph has been produced in collaboration with Master Printer Paul Croft, printed by hand from stone and from plate in a limited edition of only 30 impressions – available ten of each on Rives Tan, Cream or Grey. Further information about Karen can be found on her website at: http://www.karen-pearce.com
Ian Phillips
2014
Creiglyn
For Ian Phillips who works principally in linocut, this was an opportunity for him to try a completely new and different medium and it was curious to see how his approach to drawing and planning would be affected by use of lithographic crayon and tusche in lithography. Creiglyn 2014 by Ian Phillips was printed as a five-run lithograph, printed from stone and from plate in an edition of 30 impressions. During the last few years Ian has been involved with the group Pine Feroda, an unique collective of five artists based in Devon and Cornwall, working together to produce collaborative prints on a huge scale – these prints have been a knockout success at The Royal Academy Annual Exhibitions in London.
2013
Mary Lloyd Jones
Moel Famau
Mary Lloyd Jones whose paintings are to be found in major collections throughout the UK, Ireland and further afield, has made several prints in her career and has worked with a number of printers and different workshops including the prestigious world famous Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque. The print Moel Famau is a five run screenprint and lithograph with hand colouring – printed in an edition of 40 impressions.
Further information about Mary Lloyd Jones can be found at: http://www.marylloydjones.co.uk
