Jane Lydbury

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Jane Lydbury is an illustrator and printmaker.

 

“I love the way relief printmaking transforms an initial drawing or painting.

 

Relief printing is basically stamping an inked surface on to paper. If I start with an initial drawing, painting or daydream, I see the relief printmaking process transform it excitingly as the paper lifts from the block to reveal the cut shapes.

 

I’m interested in the possibility of the many ways of relief printmaking. Wood engraving was the first kind I learnt. It is wonderful for making small, precious images that go well with text (although it has many other possibilities).

 

At the moment I’m enjoying exploring printmaking in colour, adding layers of colour to an image by the reduction method. I’m interested in the workings of the unconscious, how dreams transform the everyday into the archetypal, a transformative quality that is shared with the printmaking process. “

 

Jane Lydbury has had her illustration work published by the Folio Society, Oxford University Press and Penguin Books among others. She has also had her wood engravings published by private presses, most recently the Reading Room Press, Fine Press Poetry and the Jericho Press. Her prints have been exhibited mainly at the Southbank Printmakers but also elsewhere, including with the Society of Wood Engravers, the Affordable Art Fair and at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. She also paints, mainly in watercolours, which provides much inspiration for printmaking.