A selection of prints by Anne Forte are available in the shop or online.
This October, we are dedicating our member’s spotlight to Anne Forte. Anne has been involved with the studio since Edinburgh Printmakers was at our previous Union Street location. From studying History of Art to teaching English abroad, Anne has a varied creative background. Alongside painting in her home studio, she usually gravitates towards screenprinting in the studio. Whilst Anne's screenprints are clearly influenced by the opera and theatre from her time working in stage design, they also focus on reinterpretation. This is evident in her reimaging of film stills, whereby she shifts the limelight to characters who are usually shown as extras in the background, or by angling her portraits rather unusually from behind the characters. See below for more information from Anne about her practice:
“I joined Edinburgh Printmakers about 35 years ago, after leaving Edinburgh College of Art with a BA honours degree in Drawing and Painting, with printmaking as my second subject. During that time, I learned etching, screenprint and photography. I was also awarded the Andrew Grant travelling scholarship, with which I bought an enlarger for the cupboard in my flat, which was then converted into a darkroom, and to fund my travels to Rome.
Joining the Printmakers was very freeing, as I could experiment and combine the different techniques which were available. Gradually and without really meaning to, I spent all my studio time making screenprints, perhaps because of the versatility of the medium. The department had recently converted to water-based inks from the less user-friendly oil-based ones. Because of the difference in ink quality, I found it necessary to use more layers of thin transparent colour to obtain the depth I wanted in my work. Being fast-drying water-based inks, the process was faster, but very intense and rewarding.
I work in what could be considered an 'old school' style, as I prefer all the preparatory work for a new print to be drawn and painted in washes, by hand. This involves using black ink, dark pencil or a sharpie on a thick translucent plastic sheet called MMR, which is then transferred to a screen by way of a light box. I have tried using digital techniques for the drawing and painting part of the process, but I find that although it is possibly more accurate and clean, I need to have a hands-on approach.
My subject matter is always in flux and has ranged over many of my interests. For a while, I made prints from theatre and the opera, and I was interested in the work of the painter Walter Sickert during his music hall period. Inspired by visiting the Paris Opera Garnier, I made prints of the interior, but without the performers or audience. This coincided with when I was working as a theatre set designer for TAG theatre company, an outreach part of the Citizen's Theatre in Glasgow. So I was possibly influenced by having to think of a three-dimensional space within the boundaries of a proscenium arch. I prefer an element of theatricality in my work, and have also made a series of prints from film stills, using Alfred Hitchcock, Andre Tarkovsky and early David Lynch. I like to take a minor character, someone perhaps without any lines to say, so it isn't always obvious what the source or narrative might be.
More recently, my work has been rather sombre and without humans. My subject matter includes animals in deserted cityscapes and landscapes, lonely beaches, empty tents and unattended fires. Despite having been a printmaking aficionado for so long, I find I'm still learning. Every time that I make a new edition, I learn something new. It is wonderfully accessible art, and the fact that it is an art of the multiple, means that prints can be disseminated to a large number of people too.”
More information about Anne Forte and her practice can be found here:
Website: https://anneforte.weebly.com/
