Ar Lan Y Mor/On the Seashore: An Art – Science – Humanities collaborative project.

As a member of Aberystwyth Printmakers, I was invited to take part in an exciting new art, science and humanities collaborative project with the theme of the seashore, focused on the local area of coastline in Mid Wales. The project would be run and organised by Aberystwyth Printmakers in partnership with the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS), The University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, and the University of Lincoln.

The idea behind the project was to create a space where knowledge of our local coastal environment could be shared through a series of walks, talks and practical workshops, leading to the creation of three original works by each printmaker – with one of the works printed onto an A4 piece of handmade seaweed paper.

We were given a brief that included information about the coastline from the professional standpoint of a representative from each of the partner institutes. This included: Seaweed: information from senior research scientist Dr. Jessica Adams about the seaweed that grows on our shore and her research at IBERS into the use of seaweed for biodegradable packaging; Curious Travellers at the Coast: insights from professor Mary-Ann Constantine on 18^th and 19^th Century accounts of people including writers and artists and their experiences of this coastline; and, finally, The Long View: A deep-time perspective of the coastal changes that have happened over the past 12,500 years.

I attended the first of the walk-and-talks arranged by Aberystwyth Printmakers on Borth beach, where we learnt more about this coastline through the professional lens of each speaker. It was great to meet up as a group and I found the talks very insightful, and they were made even more resonant by being right there on the beach!

However, I wasn’t entirely clear how I would use this information in my work. I have realised lately that I rely on the experience or sensation of a place to inspire my work, and the idea of using this more factual type of information was tricky for me to fathom.

I tried out a few ideas on paper, but relating directly to the information wasn’t working for me and felt inauthentic. I decided I would ‘file away’ what I had learned and look at the coastline with fresh eyes, knowing that the information would inevitably seep in somewhere in my work.

I decided to begin with the two pieces that wouldn’t be printed on the seaweed paper (I began these first as I wanted to make them fairly large and knew they would take some time). I had an idea that I wanted to make these a diptych and had some rough ideas I had already begun in relation to the medieval fish traps at Aberarth that had caught my interest. I chose a diptych as I wanted there to be an energy and tension between the two pieces that defied the boundary of the frame. Here is the initial sketch I would work from:

As you can see, my initial sketches were quite rough, and only included as much information as I needed to get to the next step of the process. I find too much planning at this stage can remove opportunities for chance occurrences and possibilities in the work. I scaled up the small thumbnail sketch to full size on tracing paper and used the basic shapes of the design to transfer onto wooden blocks. I use quite chunky local Ash blocks for my prints, which I cut down from planks using a jigsaw. In this instance, I used the jigsaw to cut around the shapes rather than carving them out, as it would not only save time on carving but allow me to play with the composition.

I wanted the paper to feature in the work and felt that blind embossing would be interesting to combine with the woodcut. Here are the initial beginnings of the print:

I am always beguiled by the simplicity of the image at this stage, and somewhat reluctant to add any more – I feel they have a sculptural quality that I am always chasing, but, as tempting as it is, it just feels too simple to leave it here.

So I continued, carving further blocks from lino and using the technique of etching the surface of the lino using caustic soda to create interesting textures. I experimented with numerous proofs, changing the colours and opacity of the ink until I was happy with the result. Notes were written on each proof with what I did in order to refer to them later, and I made a final swatch card with colours that I could easily recreate when it came to printing the edition.

Here are the finished prints:

Traps _Charlotte Baxetr_ Woodcut and Linocut

The framed prints are on display at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, alongside the work of more than 40 members of Aberystwyth Printmakers. The exhibition is running until the 8^th of February in Gallery 2.