Main Image.

Then:  Being so young, when I started on my journey towards living a creative life in the 1980’s, I never got used to earning ‘proper money’ so have never felt that my art couldn’t support me. I graduated with a BA Hons in Ceramics and Glass in 1984. Over the years, I’ve done numerous jobs to supplement my income to enable me to take creative opportunities in life, through travel, teaching, community arts and even a glass apprenticeship in Italy. I’ve also been very fortunate to be supported through Arts Council England and to have won some awards in the UK, and more recently, in NZ, for my drawing and mixed-media artworks.

Drawing was an integral part of my training, instilling in me the need to express my ideas through mark-making. Throughout the four years of full-time study, I never missed a Life Drawing session, and now, (an old-school believer), I still feel that drawing practice is the basis of everything.  On the degree, the use of many other types of media was encouraged and I spent many happy hours printmaking and paper-making. Drawing and dark-room photography were compulsory and I enjoyed how these subjects helped to open my eyes to new ways of seeing and perceiving the world around me.

Now:  Ten years ago I emigrated to New Zealand from semi-rural Derbyshire, and as a migrant, I’ve found that living with a foot in two worlds offers endless scope for creative expression. Leaving my homeland took some courage, energy and faith in the future. For an artist, the experience also makes for complex influences that can frequently manifest in one's work.                    

In my multiple piece ‘Unknown Territory’ I’ve created evocative imagery by drawing with graphite and flax fibre to tell my story. The 25 images depict ‘openings’ representing metaphorical windows into the unknown, reminiscent of a first encounter with somewhere unfamiliar and new.

My processes involve multi-layering, including drawing over distorted prints of other drawings and using repetition of imagery, usually of a particular feature of the landscape. In a recent artwork, ‘Fragments of a Landscape’, a deliberately understated work, the main feature is a dry-stone wall, iconic to rural Derbyshire.  

I tend to create quiet compositions, which shift between representation and abstraction, using subtle colour, uncertain perspective, fragmented views and dissolving planes, to evoke a deliberate air of ambiguity.

I’m continuing to explore ways of visually communicating ideas about memory and nostalgic association with the landscape; often with the landscape I call ‘home’. I’m interested in how we are able to bring associations to places and landscapes which, through memory, hold a resonance throughout our lives.                                               

I aspire to enter a work in the Parkin Drawing Prize - perhaps in the not too distant future!              

To see more of her work visit:  www.lynnprice.co.nz

 

Image: ‘Fragments of a Landscape’ 2017   Drawing, thread, wax.

The Nelson Regional Award - winner. Changing Threads Contemporary Fibre Art Awards 2017

Lynn Price

 
 
 
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