Lynne Roebuck describes her art
Fine artist specialising in limited edition original prints, describes her current fine art practice in her own words.
Why printmaking?
Printmaking feels like a natural discipline to have gravitated to, given my years as an illustrator and designer. There is a great deal of 'design' work involved (called 'composition' when applied to art) in producing an original print. Cutting blocks for each ink, also feels similar to a print process I've worked with for most of my professional life.
Why do you make art?
Put simply: it is a kind of problem solving I can do well. Art is all about problem solving. One of the key problems I am fascinated by at this time is how to depict the impression of a location – the 'impression' of a place is something a photograph surprisingly perhaps rarely shows. Any purely representational artwork, be it a photograph or a painting, usually has 'something' missing. I tend to describe the exercise as being concerned with “Landscape as we feel it to be”. I'm always aiming to create art which is evocative, atmospheric, distilled and modern; landscapes that look imagined, yet feel familiar because they're at the same time real and recognizable – this is how I believe that 'something' can best be made tangible, in a way touchable, and be enjoyed all the more.
Relief print evolved from sketched impressions of 'Kilburn White Horse, Yorkshire'.
Why landscape and seascape subjects?
You mean as opposed to still life, portraiture or abstract? I'm going to say that landscape just happens to be the first subject I've managed to develop an artistic approach to worthy of letting out of the studio. My sketchbooks contain thumbnails and studies for all manner of other prints and paintings, some of which have been progressed in the studio, so my art could develop in almost any direction. It is simply that my still life and abstract work does not have enough merit to be allowed out yet. I was interested in portraiture for a time and love life drawing as an academic drawing exercise for sharpening skills, but I find the diversity of landscape much more challenging.
Blogs, etc.,
Lynne Roebuck maintains a blog (http://lynneroebuck.blogspot.com) focussing entirely on her original prints in progress, printmaking process, exhibitions and new pictures. The artist's developing an area here on this website (the printmakers art) where she intends to post her current activities.
The printmaker also has a Facebook page and twitter account though she does not spend a lot of time on either of them.
How do you decide which picture to develop?
I start by exploring a location; 'getting-to-know' it directly and seeking the iconic, memorable view or qualities of the place. This can involve many visits, thumbnails, exploratory photos and rough sketches, out of which an idea forms and the final image emerges. There is often another stage involving redrawing exercises back at the studio, generally in my sketchbooks. Identifying, developing and refining the 'reason for the picture' can take a matter of days or years. While my artwork is the outcome of direct experience, I do not reproduce 'observed' sketches as prints. I spend a lot of time refining a composition, thinking through precisely what I'm aiming for and how I'm going to produce the print, using the humble medium of lino. Lino is a medium, like all mediums, possessing its own distinctive qualities – and this affects the art. Each stage involves a review of the art and many potential original prints fall by the wayside as unsatisfactory, so through this process each image in some ways seems to choose itself.
The printmaker describes how she makes her original prints…