Jason Hicklin: Recent Aquatints & Graphite Monotypes

About

Two recent residencies, at Cill Rialaig, Co. Kerry and on the Solway Firth, have allowed Jason to do what he habitually does, which is to walk the coast, drawing as he goes, until cut off by a river in one direction or the other. In both places he felt aware of being between two rivers and this led to an urge to express that feeling rather than to be too specific about what he was seeing. This does not mean that the images are unrecognisable but they are pared down and succeed in portraying the essence of those places and at the same time, because of their simplicity, other similar places. Jason has developed the drawings from Cill Rialaig into a collection of aquatints, richly printed on both sides of the paper in ink of a velvety blackness, appropriate for a man originally from the Black Country. In his previous boxed sets he has incorporated rubbings or reproductions of found text. But, as the work concentrates more on the essence of place, the words are becoming increasingly important assisting in the search for the quintessential nature of a headland, a harbour, a point, a bay, an isle or an island. The monotypes, some very large triptychs, are stripped down to the most essential elements and are printed on Japanese paper by hand with a graphite ink which gives a luminous, ethereal quality.