CHEEKY magpies and the sparse Australian landscape inspired printmaker Valerie Anderson to create a series of collagraph prints for her new exhibition at The Boulevard Centre’s Gallery.
Anderson, a long-time City Beach resident and Claremont School of Art graduate, said printmaking was exciting and rewarding.
She said constructing the print plate itself was a process just as creative as the final print.
The print plate is made of wood, cardboard, sand and glue then ink is applied into the grooves. Anderson uses multiple plates for one print.
“It’s the excitement when you pull the paper off the plates, you don’t know what you’re expecting to get. My work is quite stylised and quirky,” she said.
While the subject matter of her prints varies, nature is a recurring theme and her latest works were inspired by a recent trip to the Kimberley and a love of magpies.
Anderson said she was struck by the colour and sparseness of the Kimberley and Kakadu, especially the formation of the cliffs and the rocks.
She described magpies as an amusing bird.“You always see them around in their little family groups, they are quite comical,” she said. “Lots of people seem to enjoy the magpie prints, I’m quite surprised so many people love them, I thought it was just me.”