JULIAN MEREDITH

An astounding exhibition of huge hand-printed woodcuts and other prints will be on show at North House Gallery throughout the summer: three metre woodcut prints of whales, porpoises and fish and smaller works of fish and bees and the blocks to show how they are made.


Julian Meredith (b. 1952) uses fish, birds, animals and insects and their relationship to their environment, and to us, as his main subject matter. As well as an artist he is a smallholder and a keeper of bees.


Rivers and the sea have a strong attraction for him. He believes that many living on these islands share an instinctive attraction to fish. He is very interested in fish and bird migrations. The direction and purpose of travel, the flow of air and water and the grain of wood all come together in his work.


He enjoys the physical work involved in using large planks and parts of trees, and drawing and digging long lines and trenches on the landscape. He particularly likes to use elm planks for his woodblocks. They become “fossilized” in the process which seems appropriate, and the images proliferate as the elm trees cease to exist. He forms an attachment to these wood blocks that become dark blue with the impregnation of paint, and also to the silk fibre paper and transparent image that leaves the block.


As well as printing from wood, Julian transfers images from found objects: swans, geese, deer, otters, badgers, moles etc. These monoprints mimic fossils and photography. The usually dead subject becomes momentarily animated. He was influenced by living with his parents in Zambia and travelling in Africa. The experience made him view lack of choice and complexity as an asset, and this is reflected in his work.


Julian also works on the landscape constructing whales and fish images hundreds of feet long, some permanent and some drawn in sand and snow. He particularly enjoys working on a large scale.


As well as showing at North House Gallery throughout the summer, in July he will also make an installation in Mistley Towers as part of the Commissions East project ‘Fleet: Art in the Haven Ports’.

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