Sue Hawksworth is a printmaker.
Printing is a technique which creates an image on one surface and applies it to another. A finished picture will often be created from several, overlaid images. One of the benefits of printing is that the completed picture can be reproduced several times. This is not always the case though. Sue's picture below is a monoprint, where only one reproduction has been made.
This is a beautiful image.
It is small - just 30cm by 15cm - and sits like a jewel on the gallery wall. It deserves to be seen at a distance at first: the colours shimmer and seem to float amongst each other. Long before you get close enough to think about subjects and titles, you realise that this is a spiritual image; that it speaks about layers of experience. You feel that this is a work which is capable of engaging with you.
When I was at school, we were told to view pictures like this through half-closed eyes. The idea was that forms would become more obvious, and highlights would be more striking. You can try this if you like - but really there's no need - and you will miss some important features if you do.
We have a title which tells us what the subject is. We can make out white cliff faces, green cliff edges and the blues of the sea, the blues of the sky. But for me, there is something special about being able to see the paint.
We've looked in other posts about the magic/illusion of painting; about how pigment skilfully applied to a surface can put us in mind of something else. But there is a way of extending the wonder some of us feel about that magic. You make the paint, the medium, obvious.
This really is paint; this really does put me in mind of something in the world.
For me, there is something wonderful about the way the white of the 'cliffs' bleeds into the sea; the way that roller strokes overshoot the cliff edge. I expect that Sue could have corrected or rejected these features, but for me something important would have been lost. They remind me that art draws us into an exciting and dynamic process.
I saw this piece, along with four other prints by Sue Hawksworth, at Colonnade House in Worthing. You can do the same until 17 November.
I warmly commend her work to you.
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