IAN PHILLIPS

Ian Phillips is a Printmaker, living in Gwynedd. His work specializes in portraying the wild landscape and seascapes of Wales, with a current emphasis on Snowdonia and the North Wales coast. 

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In 2001 he moved to mid Wales to study the landscape and improve his relief printmaking technique.  Ian’s printing process today starts, as it always has done; with a walk and a sketchbook. He follows lonely trails over empty hills; through twisting forests tracks; or along cliff side paths; waiting for colour, pattern and texture to catch his eye. Ian is looking for a finished composition he can use standing out in the landscape. Once he finds the right place to stand and the right direction to look he starts drawing. Once back in the studio the work consists of scaling up the image to size, drawing it out and starting the cut.

The printing of a linocut is all about pattern. The image may start life as a scribble in a sketchbook but as work commences with linoleum, the process becomes all about gouging and cutting to make marks.  These marks then create a picture through the suggestions of the texture of rock, or the patterns of water for example. Ian builds up patterns and textures to create the feel, mood and atmosphere for the landscape of which he walked.