A selection of prints by Tom Cubitt are available in the shop.
I’ve been a studio member since May of this year so about 5 to 6 months now. I decided to join Edinburgh Printmakers after moving here from London, but I had previously been to visit the studio space and galleries. I had been printing a bit at home and I was very interested in joining when I saw the space here, I thought it would be such a good environment to develop my practice. It suddenly seemed more feasible to do something like this in Edinburgh. I then completed Gillian Murray’s screenprinting weekend course here and I've subsequently done the photo-plate lithography course with Alastair Clark and the etching weekend course with Jessica Crisp.
I first got into printmaking while in lockdown, suddenly I had all this time and I decided to draw in the evenings, mainly using my iPad. I would spend about half an hour just observing what I could around my room and creating sketches of things that I found interesting. I started to transfer these drawings onto silk screens for screenprinting, it was then I really got my interest for print.
I find making art really relaxing, especially the process of slowing down the day and really taking the time to observe and reflect on what’s happening around me. I also enjoy the routine of printmaking itself, there is a process and method to creating and it takes you into this zone of thinking.
The process I prefer to use in printmaking is etching, I think it’s because there is a very direct link between drawing and the final print. I like how there's very few additional printmaking processes involved and the live aspect of drawing directly onto the plate in that you just have to go for it! you can’t rub anything out. Drawing and creating in that moment and the directness of its process and expression is what draws me in.
My artistic practice always starts with observational drawings. I like to draw daily creating a bank of images in my sketchbook which I can then use to compose larger compositions placing my loosely drawn sketches into a decided perspective and putting them into a three dimensional space that would be inspired by my surroundings, so sort of like collaging.
I'm very interested in mundane everyday scenes. I think of these scenes as a starting point in which I observe and pull out all the slightly bizarre things that are just thrown out by everyday arrangements. I look at how you can read into these arrangements with a narrative. There’s a reality of a bizarreness in everyday objects and the way they were actually placed somewhere. Although there’s probably no real reason to a composition, by spending the time to draw it, it gives the scene a kind of significance that would otherwise be overlooked.
