CAPTURING PLACE

North House Gallery is delighted to present a new selection of work by the four Bristol-based etchers who showed here three years ago.

“Etching is a medium bound to time, process and permanence yet in the hands of these artists it becomes a way of holding on to the fleeting, the fragile and the forgotten. Their practices are rooted in documenting landscapes and structures in flux. From derelict factories and abandoned buildings to the traces of industrial heritage and the slow weathering of the natural environment, each artist reveals stories embedded within place. What unites them is a fascination with time’s imprint: the marks of decay; the resilience of structures long past their prime; and the beauty found in spaces society has overlooked. Through etching’s alchemy of metal, acid and ink, they preserve what is fragile and transient, translating absence into presence and abandonment into memory.”     -     Ian Chamberlain

Ian Chamberlain's fascination is with manmade structures, once at the cutting edge of technology, but now marooned as historical monuments in the landscape. His work is held in the collections of the V&A, Tate Modern, Bristol Museum, Royal West of England Academy, Pallant House, The University of Chichester and Chippenham Museum. In addition to his studio practice he is Researcher and Senior Lecturer in MA Fineart Printmaking at the University of the West of England.

Ros Ford's etchings relate to structures on the coast in Wales or the Severn Estuary near Bristol. Her work focuses on groynes, breakwaters, and harbours as well as industrial ruins. She works at BV Studios, Bristol and has won national prizes and awards.

Jemma Gunning specialises in post-industrial landscapes: dark, decayed and graffiti’d buildings, like the Permanite Asphalt Works, that she transforms into places of unexpected beauty with the magical power of etching to represent light. She is a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE) and the Royal West of England Academy (RWA). Collections include the V&A and the Ashmoleum. An award-winning printmaker, Jemma has been selected for various grants and fellowships to support her practice and project work. She is a passionate teacher and loves to share her knowledge of printmaking.

David Sully aims to make his drypoint and aquatint prints with the same spontaneity as his sketchbook drawings of the changes in the landscape as the seasons overlap. David was taught etching at the Royal Academy Schools by Peter Freeth RA, RE and spent his early career editioning and plate-making for artists. For the last 25+ years he has been Senior Technical Instructor in Etching at the University of the West of England and taught master classes in aquatint and chine collé at BV studios.