From The Mountains to the Sea, Engraved

Kathleen  Littler

Abergavenny based artist, Kathleen Littler,  works primarily in the medium of wood engraving with relatively small works but sometimes expanded into large collages made up of fragments of engravings to express her ideas on a big scale.  Alongside some of her engravings there are watercolours and pencil drawings related to specific subjects.

Originally a native of Pembrokeshire, many of her designs are inspired by that coastline, in addition to images of visits to Orkney where she has found a remarkable similarity to her early coastal surroundings. These will be contrasted with her recent mountain environment.

Most of her work has a strong sense of place, where even a notional image such as her “Usk Frolics” of otters and kingfishers needed to be anchored in a particular setting.

Engraving is done using fine tools on endgrain hard wood to support the amount of fine detail; nowadays synthetic substitutes are often used with exactly the same effect. Most of her work is on wood which is why some appear in the round, which is the cross section of a piece of boxwood.

She has found wood engraving to be an ideal medium for the creating of a design which reflects the qualities of rhythm, pattern, movement and contrasts of light in nature. Such a technique was first introduced by the great engraver, Thomas Bewick in the eighteenth century and has been developed by many great engravers since.

 In our own times, the medium has been re-invented as an art form in vibrant and original ways; a truly contemporary medium for expressing ideas and comment on the age we live in.

She uses a Victorian platen press to print her engravings by hand from the block. This is a highly skilled process which can require as much time and patience as the original design and cutting of the block.

There will be an opportunity during the course of the exhibition to attend a demonstration of the technique of engraving, and more of Kathleen’s work can be seen at www.kathlittler.co.uk