Paul Dewis
Artist Statement
I usually work across painting and printmaking. I often use different techniques for different projects. Until fairly recently the area where I saw the most potential, possibilities and scope to experiment, try things out develop my imagery was with the woodcut. Specifically large reduction cut blocks. Covid and lockdown changed all that! Although I’m eager to get back into the print studio and continue the large woodcuts, my allegiance has shifted to monoprints combined with collagraphs. Although making prints at home has its challenges I wanted to develop a way of working that still had scope for experimentation and allowed me to build up images with multiple layers. In my book there is no such thing as less is more!
The starting point, inspiration for my work, particularly the woodcuts and monoprints are usually black and white contact sheets of photographs I’d taken, usually images of wasteland, weeds, boarders, perimeter fencing, enclosed and cordoned off spaces. The prints/contact sheets are processed in the darkroom by dripping, squirting and painting developer, stop and fix directly onto the photographic paper. Sections of these are then scanned and enlarged to form the basis for my prints. With the woodcuts an aspect inherent with my working methods and choice of this way of working is the challenge of translating the spontaneous chemical marks created in the darkroom, into the more graphic language of the woodcut.
