ALAN TURNBULL

Alan Turnbull trained as a painter; he began making prints ten years ago. The last two major exhibitions of his work were both in St Petersburg: Liteyny Print Studios in 2002; and the Vladimir Nabokov Museum in 2005. This is the first show in the UK concentrating on his printmaking.

His prints are conceived as series and there are examples from several major projects in this exhibition.

Etchings after Van Gogh was a two year project which involved travelling to Paris and the South of France to track down and study the subjects of Van Gogh's paintings. Bridges, roads, avenues and individual trees painted by Van Gogh in the 1880s can still be found today. Drawings made in the landscape, as well as other made from Van Gogh paintings in London and Paris, led to a series of etchings, a selection of which are included here.

Alan Turnbull's long experience of landscape painting underpins this work and these prints are complemented by a group of closely observed landscape drawings. These works were drawn from life with the artist spending between one month to three months on a single drawing. They represent his highly developed drawing skills. The traditional concerns of composition, quality of light and accurate observation are evident throughout his work.

Another two year project, Nabokov into Print, takes as its starting point the writings of Vladimir Nabokov, best known for his novel Lolita. These etchings explore images of fantasy, dream and nostalgia. Several have been acquired by Harvard University for their Permanent Collection.

The most recent works in the exhibition are from the series The Poet in Exile. Inspired by his reading of Russian poets and three recent trips to Russia, Turnbull incorporates in these prints fragments of images, signs and numbers as well as Russian and English words.