Summerhouse Plantation Print

'Summerhouse Plantation in Winter' drypoint etching with chine collé and hand applied watercolour by Fiona Hamilton.
Printed on 300gsm Hahnemühle paper.
Plate measures 30cm x 45cm.
Paper measures 46cm x 63cm.
Signed, titled and editioned in an edition of 20.

Please note that etchings all have slight variations and will not be exactly the same as the photograph due to the subtle nuance in hand inking and wiping the plate. These prints will all have additional differences due to the hand applied watercolour.

In this print I’m trying to recreate the experience of a cool, crisp and bright December day. The Summerhouse Plantation is a small wooded are in Ashton Court Estate. It has sheltered trails through it, made by walkers and other visitors. Here I am at the edge, in shadow, looking out at a bright sky, pale blue with fluffy white clouds. I used a sheer chine collé tissue with a gentle sheen to it, to capture the feeling of the sky. I used deep, dark marks scraped into the plate to try to emphasise the shadow and the feeling of looking out and up at the sky.

This body of work is based on the book by Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree. Trees communicate via mycorrhizal fungi to trade water and other nutrients. Ancient and mature trees nurture their offspring via these networks, as well as trading nutrients between other species. Botanist Simard has spent years working on this theory as part of a wider body of work, discovering what it means for forests, the climate and the wider Anthropocene.

About the artist:

Fiona Hamilton is a Bristol based printmaker. Her work explores the ecological sublime and an appreciation of the majesty of nature. She uses detailed intaglio etching, drypoint, lithography and chine collé to draw the viewer into an ethereal landscape that has an impact on our sense of place in relation to the natural world. She uses primarily black and white with natural tones of chine collé and sometimes layers of lithographic texture to introduce warmth to the stark palette and to invoke a sublime emotional connection. She works from sketches, photographs, notes and memory to create her prints.

Fiona has an MA in Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking from The University of the West of England (2023). Previously she studied Graphic Fine Art at Canterbury (2002) and established Soma Gallery in 2004.