Maker of the Month – November
Carol Nunan, Printmaker
Bio
Carol loves making unique prints of land, sea, and local wildlife using monotype and collagraph techniques. You can find her original artwork online or in UK galleries. Carol now lives on the beautiful Isle of Bute in Rothesay, where she gets inspired by the colours, history, and wildlife of the island and Northumbria where she lived for over thirty years. Carol has created a gift range of affordable art, reproduction mini art, open edition prints, glass coasters and limited edition giclée prints and greeting cards. She makes variable edition prints of her originals, so each and every one is unique. She is open to commissions of her original collagraphs if a client has a particular colour palette in mind.
What attracted you to the world of printmaking, specifically monotype and collagraph printing?
I got into printmaking 27 years ago as a result of signing up for a Centre For Lifelong Learning Saturday workshop at The University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in monotype. My children were babies and it was a chance to have some creative time to myself. I went on to sign up for all the remaining printmaking courses on offer, term after term for 5 years. At this point my tutor asked me if I would be interested in covering her maternity leave. That led to us job sharing and setting up an independent printmaking studio where we taught printmaking and made our own work. I dabbled in etching, photo etching, linocut, and woodcuts but found I kept coming back to collagraph and monotype. I love the textural possibilities of collagraph printmaking and the element of serendipity with both collagraphs and monotype.
How do unexpected outcomes in printmaking influence your creative process?
I originally went to The National College of Art in Dublin to do graphic design. What I loved about printmaking was the unknown. Monotype offered a way to be play with colour but not be fully in control of the outcome. Collagraph is similar. One can make a plate but until you start to add ink you don’t really know what the possibilities are. I’m still learning. That’s the other attraction. I was on a collagraph workshop last weekend at Glasgow Print Studio and learned some new ways of approaching the inking process that can completely change the outcome of an old, or new plate.
How do you find the inspiration to create your designs?
I’m inspired by the light in the landscape and the colours, always colour. I spend a lot of time in my head trying to work out a way of capturing the feeling rather than trying to reproduce what I realistically see in front of me. Now that I have moved to the Isle of Bute I am fascinated by the change in light on the water. It is fascinating and challenging to work out new ways of interpreting what I see. I’m also very interested in archaeology and wildlife. There is an abundance on the island which will keep me busy.
What is the most rewarding part of being an artist for you?
The most rewarding part but occasionally frustrating part of being an artist is being in the studio creating, as long as it is going well. I became completely engrossed. When it’s not going so well it can be very frustrating but usually the only way to unlock that is to continue to plough through. Sometimes though I set a project to one side and allow time and space to pass before I try again. It’s amazing how that works well and the road block disappears.