printmaker
Eric Gaskell SGFA ARBSA
Born in Wigan, Eric studied painting & printmaking at Wigan College and Sunderland University. He left art college winning two painting scholarships, one to New York and one to Istanbul, as well as the Sunderland Echo Fine Art prize.
He is a member of the Society of Graphic Fine Art, The Printmakers Council and the Guild of Waterways Artists. He lives in Rugby and teaches drawing, painting and printmaking. Since 1980 he has exhibited widely in the UK, Europe and North America and has work in private and public collections around the world.
‘I always start by drawing in front of the motif. I then spend more time redrawing, trying to work out what the print may require. I make a final key drawing which is transferred to one block. This highly detailed line drawing has all the information needed for all the other blocks. It is cut and the image is transferred to the other blocks. I try to create as complex a linocut as possible using the least number of blocks, four seems to be my minimum. Each block is “registered” which means I know exactly what area will either print over another colour or between gaps left by other blocks. This means I know where the greens (made from the blues and yellows), oranges (reds and yellows) and purples (blues and reds) will appear. You don’t have to use gouges to cut the lino, I use drills, acids, sandpaper – in fact anything that will cut away the lino surface will do. The more complex the image the more I proof – that is “check” how the work is progressing. So each block is printed with the others slowly and surely taking more and more of the lino surface away until all the blocks come together to make the image I want. When that image is complete I am ready to print a limited edition. Linocutting is a time consuming business and the whole endeavour can take upwards of 6 weeks for one edition of prints’.