Biography of Laurie Rudling

I am an artist of landscape and the built environment.

I take my inspiration from direct observation of the world and human influences upon it. I draw more from the realist rather than naturalist traditions and as such transform, transpose and synthesize in the search for the essential in any particular place. Some "places" indeed exist more in my mind than the world.

My work is currently divided between intricately drawn, deeply bitten two plate etchings of landscape and richly textured collaged plates producing collagraph prints of often mysterious architectural spaces. All are inked on the plate and printed on a 24" Bewick etching press in my studio in Norwich. With the collagraphs the inkings vary from print to print in a constantly evolving experimental series. At times I embark upon monoprint and mixed-media pieces using press, silk-screen and pastel techniques creating a series of very unique part painted, part printed images.

I trained in painting at Keswick Hall near Norwich, with Art History subsequently at Queens' College, Cambridge. I have been a full time artist since 1987 prior to which I pursued a teaching career in the Midlands and London. During many years of studio practice in Devon I also taught a wide range of adult education and Access courses in the Arts. Recently I have resumed some residential and weekend teaching with Broadland Arts Centre (www.broadlandarts.co.uk) and the North Norfolk Exhibition Project (www.salthouseart.org.uk).

I moved back to my native East Anglia in 2002 where I have work in various Norfolk and Suffolk galleries and have been elected member of Norwich Twenty Group and show regularly with Norwich Printfair (www.norwichprintfair.co.uk). I continue to be represented by several galleries in South and South Western England where I am a printmaking member of the Devon Guild of craftsmen (www.crafts.org.uk).

Exhibitions and Group Shows. (a selection)

• Royal Academy 1995, 96.
• Royal west of England Academy, Bristol. 1994-2003.
• South-West academy of Fine and Applied Arts. 2001-04.
• National Print Exhibition. 1992, 96, 2002.
• Battersea Contemporary Arts Fair 1995-2003.
• Devon Guild Summer Exhibition 1998-2009.
• Art in Action, Waterperry Park, Oxon. 2002, 03, 07, 08.
• Norwich Printfair, 2003-07.
• Salthouse 05, 08. (North Norfolk Exhibition Project).
• Stark Gallery, Canterbury, 2006.
• Rooksmoor Gallery, Bath. 2006.
• Eastern Open 07 & 10, Fermoy Gallery, Kings Lynn.
• (WEG Trust Award winner).
• Printfest, Ulverston, Cumbria, 2007,08.
• Church Street Gallery, Cromer, 2007.
• King of Hearts, Norwich, 2003, 07.
• Atelier Normand Creation, Rouen, 2008.
• Obsidian Arts, Stoke Mandeville, Bucks, 2008.
• "Voicing Visions" Norwich 20 Group 2009

Techniques

Original Prints

The prints I make are all Original Prints. The strictest rules which define this practice are:

• that the artist originates the design of the image.
• the image has no other form of expression than the printed edition; the print is not a reproduction of some pre-existing painting etc.
• he or she then goes on to make the blocks, plates or other matrix from which the piece is to be printed.
• the edition should be printed under the direction of the artist or actually printed by him.
• each edition should be signed, numbered and limited to 150 or less.

Traditionally original print encompassed relief printing (lino, wood cut and engraving) intaglio (etching, copper engraving, mezzotint) screen printing and lithography.

Etching

Etching is a long established form of printmaking where the printing plate has lines, marks and textures chemically bitten into a copper or zinc plate. The artist starts by applying an acid resistant layer to the plate (a "ground"). Through this he then "needles" lines and marks to reveal the metal surface to the acid. The plate is immersed in acid and the lines are etched, the longer the "bite" the deeper the lines and the more ink they will hold and the darker they will print. The artist can also create tonal effects across the plate with sprays of acrylic or resinous dust melted onto the surface. The plate is then bitten through this special ground for varying times to make darker or lighter areas of tone quite like watercolour effects hence the name "aquatint".

When the plate is finished it is cleaned of its' various grounds and printed on the double roller intaglio press. The plate is smeared with ink all over the surface and into the etched lines and textures and then carefully wiped so that the unetched surface of the plate is clean but the ink remains in the etched detail. Heavy dampened paper is then laid over the plate and it is rolled through the press where pressures of up to 10 tons force the paper into tiniest detail of the etched marks. An intaglio artist may also make marks into his plate mechanically with scratching and gouging using heavy scribers and burins; this is termed drypoint engraving and is often combined with etching.

Collagraphs

Collagraphs are different from etchings in that the plate is built up by sticking differing surfaces, texture and shapes onto the plate. It is a collage prepared so that it can be printed like an etching plate. All sorts of material, even natural forms like grasses and leaves, can be used. The most usual are varying papers, cards and tissues but fascinating effects can be created with glues, and acrylic pastes, carborundum powder, plaster and sand. "Found objects" like doilies, metal washers and embossed wallpapers have been used to make terrifically textural prints. The plates have to be sealed with varnish before they can be printed and this can make quite a tough surface into which engraved marks can also be made.

Because of the much greater depth of a collagraph compared with an etching they carry much more ink and a wider (and sometimes unpredictable) range of purely printing effects can be achieved with collagraphs. In fact it is difficult to get exactly the same effects with each print and it is often better to regard multi-colour collagraphs as a series of monoprints rather than a uniform edition. Because the plate is usually made from softer materials than the copper and zinc of etching, collagraph plates wear more rapidly and so the editions are smaller.