Work: Cloudscapes

Polymer photogravures created  in response to ‘The View’ for an exhibition at Cairnhill,  Rioux-Martin, France, June 2026.  A view of nature or any kind of green landscape is a luxury in today’s world, though with luck people might able to glimpse a part of the sky. There is a universality about the sky. You see air, space, a view that is always familiar and forever changing.  My original photos are from different places in the UK and Europe. My prints are based on summer sky views.

I chose the polymer photogravure process to see how it would work in depicting these recognisable yet abstract cloud shapes. More inspiration came seeing artwork by Rohini Devasher: ‘Always take the Weather with you’, a set of twelve etchings of clouds. Clouds have been depicted in art many times before; my own interpretations are adding to this tradition.

I made six polymer photogravures for the exhibition in France. I printed versions in black and white, exploiting the sculptural abstract qualities of the clouds when using a colour not associated with them.  I also printed some in a cobalt blue cerulean mix to reference an intense summer blue sky.

I developed four of the original six cloudscapes further through the use of viscosity printing to create two-colour prints suggestive of evening skies. I did a lot of experimentation to reach the depth and intensity of colour  that I was finally happy with. I printed each cloudscape in variable editions of 10. The number in the edition of each print relates to a similar depth of hue or level of saturation of pink rolled over blue in the corresponding number in the other editions, reflecting the reality of mixing my inks and printing the editions over a number of weeks. This and the minor fluctuations in my wiping technique reveal my artist’s hand, making each print unique, but at the same time, part of a series.