Laura Boswell

Purple Route

I am a printmaker with a love of light and weather in wild landscapes. I specialise in linocut with some woodblock and monoprint work and my studies in Japan have had a profound effect on my printmaking. Everything begins with drawing and I strive to capture the immediacy of my sketching in my finished prints.

Behind the Scenes
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About My Practice

I trained in Western printmaking at Aberystwyth University and Japanese printing with the Nagasawa Art Programme in Japan. I work with drawn and painted line, first in observational drawings and sketches and then working directly on the printing block as I make each print. I use a single block per artwork, gradually cutting and printing until the block is completely cut away. This technique is called reduction printing, and it allows me to constantly develop my print as I work. This gives me great freedom in responding to the print as I layer and build my colours and textures to catch the impression of fleeting weather and light, water and landscape.

Tools & Materials

I work with a large Victorian Albion printing press and traditional lino, a softer and thicker version of flooring lino, designed for artists. I work in oil based printing inks, but I use them in very thin washes as though they are watercolours. My prints can have twelve to twenty or more layers, mimicking the Japanese woodblock printing I learned in Japan. I like prints to have a delicacy and transparent quality as I am often working with distance, water and the very changeable weather here in Scotland. My prints are hand cut using a variety of Japanese and European tools while I often use paints, crayons and dip pen for drawing onto the lino as a guide for my cutting, bringing the feel of my drawings to the finished print.