Five printmakers who are as individual in their approach as the famously unusual timing of the Brubeck track.
Martine Baldwin Ruth Ander Ben Goodman Lee Natland Iva Svabic-Cannon
Curator Iva Svabic-Cannon writes:
‘TAKE 5 – the exhibition title, works well on a subtle conceptual level because Brubeck’s track uses an unusual rhythm – and we all have an unusual approach to printmaking. The unusual rhythm echoing our different ways of working!
Martine prints from ‘found’ weathered wood which echoes the textures of tidal landscapes and combines this with layers of images produced from the processes of woodcut and photopolymer. The landscape of the Severn Estuary is a particular inspiration
Ben Goodman takes an influence of the human figure from the medieval panel painters to contemporary printmakers & painters. Blending oil painting and printmaking techniques, he uses engraving to build up multi-layered prints which resemble miniature paintings.
With an experimental approach to relief printmaking, Lee Nutland explores the underlying fragility of things perceived to be permanent. Lee creates simple and ghostly landscapes inspired by prehistoric stone monuments.
Ruth Ander’s painterly and mixed media approach to printmaking creates expressive one-off works on paper. Combining hand mono print, dry point etching and collage, she makes atmospheric land and seascapes.
I, Iva create linocuts in an expressive and energetic way. Most of my images are abstract, with a dynamic interplay of lines and patterns. My aim is to transform the simplest scene into an experience. Come and enjoy the works we are showing at HOURS.’
Ben Goodman
British artist and printmaker, Ben Goodman, is best known for his use of traditional wood engraving to create intricate and powerful portraits. Blending oil painting and printmaking techniques, he uses engraving to build up multi-layered prints which resemble miniature paintings. The result is a unique style and approach, which creates subtle, textured and intimate contemporary prints.
His work is inspired by the beauty and nuance of the human form and its variety of shape, colour, and texture. He takes influence from 800 years of European painting and printmaking. From medieval panel painters, to contemporary printmakers and painters.
Goodman’s work has been widely exhibited throughout the UK and internationally, and his prints are held in various National Collections, including the V&A (UK), MMU (UK), CAFA (China) and HMP (China). He is the youngest of his generation to become an elected member of The Society of Wood Engravers, and was awarded the prestigious Rachel Reckitt Prize in 2023 and 2025.
He is a Senior Technician at UWE (Bristol) where he teaches engraving and relief printmaking. And co-edited the journal Multiples between 2021–2025.
www.bengoodman.co.uk https://www.instagram.com/bengoodman_uk
Martine Baldwin
My primary practice as a printmaker has been woodcut and particularly printing the grain of wood. The landscape of the Severn Estuary has been a particular inspiration also, somewhere I am continually drawn to. The woodgrain, often printed from ‘found’ weathered wood, brings a textural dimension describing the fragility and shifting nature of these littoral, marginal places. More recently I have become interested in combining printing from wood with photographic imagery, wanting to explore how one might dialogue with the other, give the other another dimension. In the image ‘Wake’ the pattern of the woodgrain woven through the image of the wreck of a boat at Berrow uses the technique of chine-colle which literally merges two prints into one, echoing the weathered surface of the wooden vessel and describing how it has become indiscriminate from the landscape, ingrained in the elements of the place itself.
Lee Nutland
Born and raised in Southwest England, Lee Nutland grew up in Somerset, studied in Falmouth, Cornwall, and now lives and works in Bristol having graduated with an MA in Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking from UWE, Bristol in 2023.
Through his work Lee explores the fragility of that which is perceived to be permanent. With an experimental approach, he combines elements of monoprint within the relief printmaking process, building layers of tone and texture to capture atmosphere and emotion.
Inspired by prehistoric stone monuments, Lee considers their place in the landscape and human consciousness and how that relates to current attitudes towards the environment and the human experience. Through the act of walking in the landscape he creates a connection to those who have gone before and considers the passage of time, our place in history and the finite nature of existence.
Website: www.leenutland.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leenutland/
IVA -Ivana Svabic Cannon
I am Serbian born artist, illustrator and printmaker who is based in Bristol. I started my career as a children’s book illustrator in London in ’92. I moved to Bristol in 1999, and this is when I joined Spike Print Studios.
Series of linocut and woodcut prints I have been creating through my insatiable drive for experimentation. My images are inspired by nature, especially the movements of water. Linocut technique, as my main medium in printmaking, allows me to use lines in an expressive and energetic way. Most of my images are abstract, which I create with the dynamic interplay of lines and patterns. My aim is to create the simplest scene which can become an experience. I also incorporate other techniques and materials in my printing like collagraph with plaster of Paris and carborundum, making paper and printing from found objects!
I print my images in small editions of 20 and maximum of 30 prints. I print my prints with professional oil-based printmaking inks on white Somerset 250g paper. Under a great pressure on an etching press the image is embossed as well as printed, which gives out a special three-dimensional effect. As all plates are inked by hand there may be a slight variation in tone or colour in the whole edition.
ivana.svabic@gmail.com https://www.instagram.com/svabiccannon
Ruth Ander
Straddling the space between painting and printmaking, Ruth’s gestural monotypes, drypoints and mixed media pieces strive to evoke the sublimity of ancient landscape and seascape.
The results are something between an old Italian fresco, an English Romantic painting and a Japanese woodblock print.
Ruth graduated with a BA (Hons) in Illustration from the University of the West of England (UWE) and has spent the intervening time honing her hand printing techniques. After a year long scholarship at the printmaking department of UWE, 20 years after graduation, a love of etching was rekindled and line started to appear in her work again.
A bursary from the West of England Visual Arts Alliance in 2023 and residency at ‘The Vestibules’ in City Hall, Bristol, allowed her to develop her larger mixed media work throughout that year.
Ruth exhibits and sells her work widely, including at venues such as the Royal West Of England Academy, Black Swan Arts and the Atkinson Gallery. She is represented by Tincleton Gallery, Dorset, Cambridge Contemporary Art, Little Buckland Gallery, Broadway (Cotswolds) and Makers, Bristol. She is a member of Spike Print Studio and has a working studio at Jamaica Street Studios in Stokes Croft, Bristol.
email ruth_ander@yahoo.co.uk www.ruthander.co.uk https://www.instagram.com/ruthanderprints