South Gloucestershire College Fine Art tutor Simon Packard staged a pop-up exhibition at the Stroud Valleys Artspace in John Street, Stroud last weekend.
He reflects on the inspiration for the prints and events leading up to creating the ‘Garden’ series: ‘The new prints seen at SVA at the end of August were made in Stroud through the heat from March and finally printed in August in the print room at SGS Stroud Campus.
The large-scale format of the woodcuts was one I had been using for a couple of years. Previous themes were patterns from sketchbooks and sea and landscapes of the Northeast where I was born and raised and spent a great deal of time as my elderly Father grew more infirm.
The new set of prints which I am calling the ‘Garden’ series marks a return to making after the ‘double whammy’ of both my Father’s death in February and the loss of my job as Senior Tutor, Foundation Lead at the University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham in March. My contract was not renewed. I was laid low.
My Partner of 28 years, Fi Hill (MA Fine Art) suggested that I should focus on my practice to counteract the feelings of low self-worth induced by my job loss. She said: ‘block out all the negativity and do what you love doing. Focus on your Practice’.
We embarked on a mission on a day of searing heat to buy a stack of MDF boards, lino cutting tools, a graphite stick and a bottle of lack drawing Ink. My physical energy levels were so low that the garden was just about within reach, and it became a sanctuary for my creativity and cradled me in its wildness. I bore witness every day to the wonder that it offered up to me and I felt excited by the new growth around me.
I was driven to explore from one subject to the next; from the wild patches of tall nettles, grasses and creeping buttercups to Lily bulbs pushing out new lush green leaf growth, and soon the Lilies began to bloom. A family of robins visited most mornings, the babies learning new tricks and how to feed themselves amongst the straw mulch and newly sprouted shoots.
The sun shone intensively, and we rigged up a clear waterproof tarp in case of showers and one of my Father’s bedsheets for shade from the most intense sun. I worked on for hours and hours. Fi brought me lunches and evening meals and often I carried on cutting until the light began to fade.
The ‘Garden’ series features a variety of print ‘styles’. I was intent on varying the mark-making as I progressed; both drawn and painterly, and retaining the character and ‘fluidity’ of the original ink drawing in the final print.
I also wanted to explore the different possibilities of scale within the prints as well as the arrangement of pattern; the repetition of lily flowers to show details and closeups and to capture the complex architectural structures of the interwoven stems in the undergrowth. I was drawing with graphite or painting with drawing ink directly onto the MDF block. I drew one board, then the next, then started cutting with an eye on the weather forecast each morning because I couldn’t believe my luck as the sun just kept on shining.
I pressed on, driven by the thought that I would have to take an enforced break if there was a change in the weather. In the past I have printed on Fabriano paper by burnishing the back of the paper with a spoon to transfer the image. It is intensive labour and usually takes at least a day for a medium sized print. I printed one of the new prints this way (No.2) but as I landed the ‘spontaneous pop-up Exhibition slot’ at SVA I realised I needed access to a printing press to speed up the process.
I wanted to achieve especially heavy black ink in the prints to highlight the contrast of each image. I set the printing press pressure to the max and rolled all the boards through the press for their first print, (Artist’s Proof), all 16 prints within a week; one of the most intense periods of printing I have achieved in the last few years of teaching!
In hindsight, it’s clear that this was a time of healing for me; making woodcuts was familiar and comforting and being able to focus completely and work outside in such beautiful weather was an absolute gift. Often in my printing career I have worked to produce an exhibition over months or years.
The exhibition at SVA was different because I cut the whole series of boards one after the other in the same place under the same conditions, completely absorbed in making, driven on by curiosity, experimenting with new techniques of layering drawings; a second layer of complex pattern applied over the first drawing which led to new intricacies in the final prints.
Once I’d finished cutting all the boards, I realised I had a show-ready body of work that just needed printing. I wasn’t aiming for anything in particular when I began the first woodcut; each new drawing or painting on the MDF board was a fresh investigation into what the garden was offering up and what had caught my attention that day.
Thanks to Jo and Neil at SVA for the opportunity; the gallery was a perfect venue for my exhibition of Artist’s Proofs (the first print taken from a woodcut block) of the ‘Garden’ series. I am in the process of getting a website together which will showcase a retrospective selection of prints as well as the new ‘Garden’ series seen at SVA.
Printing of the editions of the images in the new series will begin in earnest over the next fortnight. If you are interested in purchasing from my Print Portfolio, either the new series or retrospective prints, DM Instagram… simonhpackard.’
Pictures by Simon Pizzey
