We have been delighted to welcome artist Sadie Tierney to be in residence in the Rabley Drawing Centre print–room making stunning woodcuts for her forthcoming exhibition ‘Of Night and Light and the Half-light’.
Monumental in scale, she has honed the blocks and cut the images using hand and mechanical tools, never loosing the freshness of the drawing translated from her sketched and sometimes drawn directly onto the plywood sheets.
Even the large press could not cope with printing the works in one piece. saw.
These multi block and sheet prints have a vibrant energy and are inspired by the technique of cutting shapes form the block. These multi -block and sheet prints have a vibrant energy and are inspired by the technique of cutting shapes form the block used by Edvard Munch in 1899. He inked the cut out pieces, putting the pieces back together like a jig–saw before printing.
Edvard Munch -‘Two Human Beings’, 1899, woodblock print in two colourways.
Inking the pieces separately allows for colour changes and makes each print in the edition a unique combination. Inking-up takes every surface and every roller in the print room, Sometimes it is difficult to know where to stand! But the beautiful pigments sing out even at this stage.
At the end of the week we have woodcut print heaven!
The title of the exhibition is taken form this beautiful poem by W. B. Yeats (1865-1939)
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
To view Sadie’s new prints please visit our website.
SADIE TIERNEY Starry Mantle Boardwalk Wheel (detail) , Woodcut and hand colour
EXHIBITION
Sadie Tierney
Of Night and Light and the Half-light
18 September – 21 October
Open Thurs/Fri 10 – 5, Saturday 11-3, & by appt.
The anticipated excitement of the voyage radiates from Sadie Tierney’s new woodcuts and watercolours. In the gloaming a ship heading out of port reflects on the sea. A fun fair enwrought with its mantle of starry gems lights the night sky.
Born in Chichester in 1971, Tierney studied Fine Art Printmaking at the Royal College of Art. Her expressive prints and paintings spring from sketches made en plein air and are marked by their celebratory use of colour and line.
Tierney lives and works in Portsmouth, her studio looks towards the Solent water where she draws inspiration from the passing ships and fairground lights that punctuate the twilight. Her luminous and monumental woodcut of a bandstand titled with the moto ‘Heavens Light Our Guide’ is topped with the symbol of the star and moon and is the pride of Portsmouth.
‘Of Night and Light and the Half-light’ at Rabley Drawing Centre, Marlborough coincides with the towns historic ‘Mop Fair’, held it the high street in October each year and dating back to 1204.
Sadie Tierney’s work is held in numerous public collections including The Bronx Museum of the Arts New York, The National Museum, Gdańsk, Eton College and The Royal Navy.
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