ART FOCUS / Emily Crookshank

CIRCLE have invited Emily Crookshank, a young and emerging printmaker, to join us at the gallery on the 2nd of June to talk about her current series of work. Emily will be spending time in Cornwall this Summer making study drawings for an exhibition of mono and intaglio prints later this year. As part of our core group, Emily's work is available to view throughout the year.

Emily Crookshank is an artist and printmaker based in London. Since graduating from The Glasgow School of Art her work has been exhibited across the UK, including in the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy. Exhibiting regularly in London, Emily's work has been selected for a number of highly regarded exhibitions and shown together with some of the most exciting and innovative artists and contemporary printmakers.

Emily's approach to making work is to be experimental and considered, bringing together multiple techniques in printmaking, painting and drawing, to reimagine familiar ways of working.

The Etching Process: An original etching is printed by hand, with a great deal of time and care and with each print demanding a high level of technical skill. The etching process uses acid to create ink-bearing lines on a metal plate. The plate (copper, zinc, aluminium or steel) is covered with a thin acid resistant wax. The etcher draws freely into the wax, exposing the metal beneath. The plate is then placed in the acid bath and the exposed marks are bitten away, forming the image. The resulting image comes from the artist's ability to control this 'bite' of the acid into the metal.Ink is then applied to the plate, filling the bitten lines. It is placed on the bed of the printing press with a piece of dampened paper on top. It is then rolled through the press by hand and subjected to a huge amount of pressure, pushing the paper into the bitten lines and transferring the ink to the paper. Each print is an original piece of artwork due to variations created by the process of printing by hand.