A selection of prints by Jean Gillespie are available in the shop.
My first exploration of print was when I was encouraged to try etching as another form of drawing. I found that I loved the very textural surface where the drawing seemed embedded into the paper and of course that wonderfully rich black colour you can obtain from etching. I first came along to Edinburgh Printmakers in 1995/6 when it was at Union Street and was an intermittent member from then.
In one form or another art, particularly drawing, has always been important to me. Throughout my childhood it was where I could lose myself and yet feel connected to the world. Through art I have been gifted the freedom to express feelings and to transcend difficult circumstances. Today it is when thinking about and making art that I feel most at home with myself.
I have tried most of the processes in printmaking and initially it was the line and depth of tone in etching which attracted me. Because of that I tried Japanese woodblock but have not yet managed to learn how to carve. Recently I have become fairly adept at plate lithography and strangely enough I am attracted to it because of the flatness of the medium. Also, I can use digital photography along with drawing and I think it is more painterly. I like the abstract and contemporary nature of the images you can create.
I am interested in the idea of poetics and reference nature and our interaction with it through my work. Most of the marks and traces I work with will generally go unnoticed but what I see are possibilities, questions and connections that can be made. I enjoy working with different materials and seeing how different meanings can be attached to them when they are used in artistic expression. I think play is really important to open out ideas, to allow for mistakes and generally be human.
I have recently been looking at ways to include poetry into visual art in a more immersive way and am presently looking at ways of printing onto objects. I have a few ideas I’m going to follow up so watch this space!
