Understorey Print

'Understorey' drypoint etching with litho printed chine collé by Fiona Hamilton.
Printed on 300gsm Somerset Satin paper.
Plate measures 20cm x 30cm.
Paper measures 32cm x 44cm.
Signed, titled and editioned in pencil by the artist 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. 

The title of this print comes from a chapter from Underland by Robert Macfarlane in conversation with Merlin Sheldrake. The understory is where the wood wide web can be found, beneath the tree canopy and the forest floor. And so much more: fungi, lichen, saplings.

What interests me most,” says Merlin, “is the understory’s understory.” He points around at the beech, the hornbeam, the chestnut. “All of these trees and bushes,” he says, “are connected with one another belowground in ways we not only cannot see, but ways we have scarcely begun to understand.

You can read this chapter online in Emergence Magazine here.

Fiona states:

Here I have used litho printed chine collé alongside drypoint etching. This is made from two plates with different views of the same image. My aim here is to give a sense of movement, or a trace of what has been, but the result is almost abstract, losing definition. This represents mutualism between fungi and plants.

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 Hamilton 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.