About
The Royal Society of Painter Printmakers (RE) was founded in 1880 to counter the Royal Academy's then refusal to recognise printmaking as a creative art. Past members have included Walter Sickert, August Rodin, Dame Laura Knight and Graham Sutherland.
Six members of the RE will exhibit at the White Lion Street Gallery in Tenby in September. All are active members, Meg Dutton being the current Vice President, Hilary Paynter the immediate ex-president and Anthony Dyson also an ex-vice president. Geographically distant from each other, they share their Society membership and exhibitions and their passion for creating work by the archaic and laborious methods of print-making.
Hilary Paynter uses wood-engraving to produce fine representations of land and city features, myths and legends, animals and more. Based in Devon she has won several prestigious commissions. Hilary is uniquely qualified to curate this show and has selected artists who together provide a wealth of experience and a range of print-making techniques and subject matter.
Following graduation, Trevor Price from Cornwall was apprenticed in a London etching studio and still uses those skills making drypoint and multi-plate etchings. He also makes prints with Perspex plates, using a soldering iron to draw the image. Perhaps best known for his prints of intimate couples, cuddling in bed, quaffing wine, sharing food, Trevor has won national printmaking awards and regularly holds exhibitions across the UK.
Anthony Dyson established the Black Star Press in Teddington, and worked as a master-printer for many years, producing prints for other artists and for the Tate Gallery and Harvard University. As a student at Leeds College of Art, his lithographic and linocut prints were shown at the Royal Academy but now he works mostly in etching. In the exhibition are his London and Venetian scenes, in eye-watering detail. His prints are in public and private collections all over the world.
Meg Dutton is known as a painter and etcher. Incredibly detailed scenes of mosques, landscapes and buildings are produced in rich colour. Sometimes she combines print and painting in her beautiful hand painted etchings. Regularly exhibiting in UK galleries, Meg has won many awards, prizes and commissions and she has recently been elected as President of the RE.
Somerset provides the source material for Julia Manning. Close observations of interactions between birds and animals are sketched and later reinterpreted in print. The results are vibrant, animated works in glowing colours. She enjoys printmaking as much for the process as for the product. An associate member of the Society of Wildlife Artists, Julia has consistently won awards for her work.
A move to Norfolk from London, where Angie Lewin had originally studied printmaking and worked as an illustrator, reignited her love of print processes. Inspired by the clifftop and saltmarsh landscape and flora, she depicts them in wood engraving, lino cut, silkscreen, lithograph or collage. Often the landscape is seen through an intricate lacework of plant stems and foliage, seedpods and grasses.
She also designs fabrics, including for Liberty's Autumn/Winter 2010 collection, and her work has been featured in magazines and books.
The exhibition from some of the best printmakers in the UK is open from 1st to 27th September at the White Lion Street Gallery in Tenby. Hilary Paynter will be in the gallery from 11am till 4pm on Sunday 18th September, to meet visitors and demonstrate wood engraving.
