Nicola Bealing: 'Mono'

About

Nicola Bealing returns to Kestle Barton this year with her imaginative and expressive collection of large scale mono prints.Like her paintings, these works on paper reveal her unique style of (sometimes dark) humourous insight into human nature and beastly possibilities.

‘Mono’ (8 June – 14 July) will focus on mono prints that were made over the last three years with the help of master printmaker Simon Marsh. The variety of imagery reflects themes and preoccupations that were emerging in her studio work during that time. Here, Nicola reflects on the process she has used:

‘Mono printing is printmaking at its most pared down and foolproof: an image is made on a plate in ink or paint, then transferred directly on to paper. The apparent simplicity of the process calls for intense focus, both happy and unhappy accidents can happen randomly. All printmaking is a kind of magic, but I’ve always been drawn to mono printing for the speed at which the magic happens and the way in which it can work as a springboard to bounce ideas and problems out of the studio.’

Educated in both England and Malaysia, Nicola Bealing moved to Cornwall from London in 1988 and was one of the first artists to move her studio into the new CAST building in Helston. She is an Academicians of the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) and has shown extensively with numerous solo exhibitions; including a wonderful collection of large canvases here at Kestle Barton in 2015, in response to the archives of the Helston Folk Museum. This Death and CicusesProject was awarded funding from the Arts Council England Grant for the Arts award.