My printmaking inspiration has to be Norman Ackroyd, who I believe to be one of our greatest printmakers. Norman Ackroyd CBE, RA was born in Leeds, although now lives and works in Bermondsey, London and is known primarily for his aquatint work. He was awarded a CBE in 2007 for his services to engraving and printing and has exhibited widely all over the world. He has also been commissioned to produce a number of murals, his most recent completed in 2010 was called ‘Galapagos’, an external mural for the Sainsbury Laboratory at the University of Cambridge for the Study of Plant Development.
Aquatint is a medium I particularly love – it is an intaglio printmaking technique (a variant of etching) where marks are made on the plate (in this case a copper or zinc plate) that then hold the ink and produce an image not dissimilar in appearance to a watercolour.
