When did you start your creative practice and why?
From a very young age, I always made things and enjoyed creative play and this has never left me. I was fortunate that my parents understood my need to be creative and that they funded my Fine Art degree in sculpture. Since graduating in the early 1990s, time for my own work had ebbed and flowed depending on teaching commitments, but I realised that, when time allowed, it was important to develop my work and my creative voice. For the last 12 years, I have been fortunate to focus on running creative workshops and exploring a range of print techniques.
How would you describe your artistic style to someone unfamiliar with your work?
I think varied, would be a fair description of my work. 3D work was my passion from my mid teens and on my foundation and degree courses we were encouraged to use a wide range of processes and thankfully this has stayed with me.
I fell into printmaking whilst I was teaching secondary Art and Design and realised that although I made lots of examples and resources for my students, I hadn't made anything for myself for a number of years. I needed processes that weren't too demanding of my time and that I could, depending on my teaching commitments, stop and start and began with lino cutting and printing.
I have since discovered that printmaking, like sculpture, has so many facets and I feel that it gives me the opportunity to explore a range of processes, whilst exploring different images and themes. A still life image created as a lino cut, will be very different if explored as a mono print or an intaglio print.
What themes or ideas do you find yourself returning to most often?
Buildings in the landscape and still life draw me back time after time. I like the the variety that they suggest to me and I don't tire of them.
Do you ever have creative blocks, how do you keep motivated?
I find that if that ideas aren't flowing it's sometimes not worth forcing them. A visit to an exhibition or time reading and leafing through a pile of Art books, shifts something in me and a ideas begins to grow. Walking and swimming are also really useful if I need to clear my head and gain a different perspective.
However, I'm also a firm believer that you have to turn up to be creative and sometimes you need to work at it and push through.
There are times when my creativity takes a back seat for a few weeks if my diary is heavy with workshop commitments. However, this time and distance is very useful, as I feel slightly frustrated that I'm watching others making whilst I can't and it makes me keen to be back at my workbench.
How does your immediate environment or location play in your work?
Living and working in Derbyshire is important to me, as it provides a significant visual resource for my work. The themes of home, countryside and the domestic environment inspire me, which I record and respond to.
My studio space is also really important to me. I have windows that are the full width of the studio, overlooking the garden. I see the light change throughout the day and enjoy watching how the seasons develop. Cats, birds and the occasional hedgehog visit. The garden has developed and matured over the last 10 years and I now enjoy the hard work that my husband and I have put into it. I occasionally sketch my view, but it's more that what I see relaxes and grounds me when I look up from my workbench.
Who are the artists (past or present) who have strongly influenced you?
Elisabeth Frink was a big influence when I was completing my degree, along with Alberto Giacometti and Constantin Brancusi. I love the work of Eric Ravilious, John Maltby and the Bloomsbury set.
If you could give the younger you advice what would it be?
Never stop drawing. Some years ago, I found that time restraints made my drawing purposeful and task driven, ie. a design for a lino cut. I didn't have time to draw for pleasure, I stopped using sketch pads and my exploration with a range of materials stopped. A couple of years ago, I started drawing again and it brings me so much joy and I feel this has brought a spontaneity to my current work.
Have you got a project / award/ residency/ or idea are you excited to share with us?
I enjoy shopping at my local market in Wirksworth. I like the hustle and bustle, the coming together of my local community and the fresh produce I can buy. I have also been taking my sketchbook with me for the last few months, settling down for a couple of hours of rapid sketching. It's a challenge to draw figures that don't remain static, so it pushes me to try different scales, materials and techniques. I'm also developing the images as intaglio and mono prints.
I have also just started attending a weekly life drawing class, to support my market drawings.
If your work could evoke one feeling or reaction in viewers, what would it be?
Joy.
What is your website and how do we find you on social media?
Instagram - @lizwellby
Facebook - @LizWellbyArtist
