The first time I screenprinted was December 2nd 1981. Screenprinting was one of the workshops in the first term of the Art Foundation course I was on at Northampton College. I had previously never even heard of screenprinting, but I realised immediately that it was a process that was perfectly matched to my interests and preferences. Clive Ramshaw was my tutor and his demonstration and encouragement was crucial to getting me hooked.
I am pleased to still have pretty much all of my work from that course and so here are those first prints, along with my research and planning sheets and some variations on the original two images. It is probably not a surprise to find that they are square! They are both quite simple but they allowed me to see the potential in the technique and I went on to a Fine Art degree where I specialised in this medium. Fortunately, all today’s inks, emulsions and cleaners are water-based and predominantly safe, whereas back then the inks were oil-based and the solvents you had to use were unbelievably toxic!
It is so exciting to be able to immerse myself in screenprinting again over 37 years after I started. I will post some new work-in-progress images very soon.
