April's 'Meet the Maker' event featuring WYPW member Ruth Archer

Our Mirfield gallery shop will be open Friday 18th and Saturday 19th April 11-3pm with one of our featured members, Ruth Archer demonstrating her creative process and discussing examples of her work on the Friday between 12-2pm.

Currently living and working in Marple, Greater Manchester, Ruth draws inspiration for her printmaking practice from the abundant local nature, particularly in ephemeral, yet everyday encounters. Having grown up in rural Somerset and worked professionally as a Landscape Architect, she has always felt a strong connection with the natural world and been motivated by a desire to safeguard a rich environment both for us and for nature.

Her subjects nearly always come from nature and inspiration can strike in anything from an effect of light to a wild creature glimpsed about its daily life, or in botanical details from the wild or her garden. She is passionate about the beauty and the strangeness of the planet we live on.

Ruth stumbled on printmaking by (happy) accident and found that it encouraged her to slow down and notice more deeply in a way that she had craved in her wider practice. As a result, her work is eclectic and experimental; through slow observation different elements in a composition command different treatments and, in turn, techniques themselves define the work’s evolution.

She is always keen to add to her printmaking skills, but at present works mostly combining drypoint with layered elements like linocut, chine colle and monoprint. A long-term enjoyment of mixed media painting has also informed her printmaking practice (and vice versa) as the challenge of experimenting with layering and combinations is a way of continually looking in a new way at the subject.

“Printmaking constantly surprises me with its challenges and its possibilities (which are deliciously endless!). I try to make work that expresses my wonderment at what I see in the world and I hope that, in doing so, other people will gain some enjoyment, share in that feeling and be uplifted when viewing my work.”

Ruth will be demonstrating her drypoint process as part of the event alongside showcasing and selling examples from her wider portfolio. We look forward to seeing some of you there!