Cath Deeson Interview

The first of our artist interviews we asked Cath questions about her printmaking and the influences on her work, and we are so thrilled with her open and in depth answers. Until the middle of April, Cath has a featured window at She Rose showcasing her most recent work.

Visit her shop page: https://www.jooakley.co.uk/cathdeeson

"Curiosities 2"

Where did your love of printmaking come from?

I grew up with a very creative mother! She would always be spinning or weaving or printing on something/anything/everything! She was always making, baking and growing. I was incredibly lucky. I truly had the best childhood, and I know it. My time spent with her encouraged my love of creativity.

At 16, I went to art college and eventually ended up at Christchurch University College in Canterbury and completed my BSc degree in Social Sciences and printmaking. I experimented with most printing techniques I wasn’t really fussed by lino prints but really loved etchings. A couple of years after my course finished, I had my first child and started printing again. I didn’t want acids in the house with a baby, so I bought some linoleum and started carving designs from that and there begun my absolute love of linocuts.

How do you feel your art has changed or progressed in the last few years?

This is a tricky question for me. I think I used to have more of a distinct and definite style but more recently I think that my artwork has changed and progressed due to exploring many different styles. I have become more experimental. 

I used to do a lot of writing and poems within my linocuts which were fun because I really enjoyed writing bad rhyming poetry! But at the same time writing letters backwards and cutting them could always prove slightly troublesome. More recently, I have found that I get absolute joy from simplicity in art.

To discover that you can create something striking from bold and colourful shapes. I have been making quite a few jigsaw linocuts which is a really simple way of adding more colours to your print without having to use multiple linos. And even more recently, due to a local commission, I have changed direction again and turned to making reduction linocuts. This allows you to add as many colours as you wish but all being cut and printed from the same one piece of lino. So you gradually cut away part of your design and add a colour and then cut away a bit more and add another colour and so on.

It’s a great way of adding depth and enables me to add so much more detail and I am really loving the process of creating these multicoloured reduction prints. I think that is where I am at the moment.

The imagery in your work reflects where you live and work, tell us about how the landscape and the coast influences you?

Well, this is absolutely true!! I am absolutely inspired by everything around me. I am especially drawn to the coast, the beauty in our landscape and the structures that are built within it. 

I live in Broadstairs, and I absolutely love it here, I love the amazing changing Thanet coastline with the chalk cliffs, sandy beaches and stoney beaches. I am drawn to fishing villages. 

I love Fishing huts and the quintessential English weatherboard cottages of Whitstable. I love the unpretentiousness of Herne Bay and its iconic structures! 

Reculver Towers, the water tower, the clocktower, the old pier end, Maunsell forts sea defences, the windmill and wind farm. 

I find that all the work that I do is indeed inspired by my local surroundings. It would be a sad existence if you didn’t absolutely love where you live. This is where we spend our life, our time on earth, our home.

I am also a ferocious treasure hunter! I like to think that you will always find treasure or something special on any beach, especially the Stoney ones! Herne Bay particularly is great for stripy stones fossils and shark’s teeth. 

The things I collect and bring home will find special places on my shelves and these will also find their way into my artwork!

"Hold The Fort"

Do other printmakers and the techniques they use inspire your work, who has been an influence to you? Who are your biggest artistic influences?

Crikey, yes!! 

From a young age, my mum would take me to exhibitions, galleries museums, 

And I think it was only really in my college years when I started to really appreciate and find an understanding of ‘art’ that I first fell in love with the work of John Piper.

His use of paint and collage was an absolutely glorious combination. The texture and depth he could create using different mediums together was breathtaking to me. 

However, Cyril Power was the first linocut artist that took my breath away! I was living in London around 2001 and I saw a clipping on the back of the newspaper of his famous Bank tube station being sold at an auction and I thought ‘Wow!! that’s what I want to do’!

He attended the sensational Grosvenor School in London which seemed to produce a whole batch of similar but equally outstanding Printmakers in the 1930s including Sybil Andrews, Lill Tschudi and their teacher Claude Flight. 

Other printmakers,Robert Tavener, Edward Bawden, Eric Ravilious have also consistently inspired me! 

My love of these 1930s artists developed my love of poster art and book (cover) art over the years. 

Do you have a favourite part of the printmaking process? What brings you the most joy?

Oof!! Not the cutting…that’s for sure although I guess some would argue that it could be therapeutic…and I want to say it’s the whole process, but I’d be lying! I do love the process of seeing the progression from the initial drawing to the end Print but that doesn’t necessarily mean I like the in-between bit! I wonder if this is the same for all printmakers?! For me, it is that first pull through the press and the lifting up of paper…. the big reveal to see your design for the first time.

And the excitement if it’s a good one!!

That is by far the best part of the process. 

What are your top five printmaking tips for those who are new to printmaking?

 The great thing about Print making and lino printing, especially as it is a relatively cheap medium to use.

1. I think my first tip would be do not spend big bucks on buying the best equipment you can achieve great lino prints with the plastic red handled cutters and rollers that you can buy in any art shop. I only invested in some wooden handled Pfeil tools a few years ago. I used the plastic ones for well over a decade. There’s also good, relatively cheap brands of ink that will go a long way.

2. My second tip would be to experiment! Printmaking is just that, just making a print from something/anything. You can do it from any surface and I love that.  People can be so inventive. You see them making prints from decorative manhole covers, pressed flowers and leaves etc. Or making indentation drawings in orange juice cartons. And taking Prints from that! (See She Rose Tetra Pak printing workshops)! It’s so versatile so just experiment!

   Take a look at printmaking courses...

3. My third tip would be ‘keep it simple’. Some of the best designs are the simplest ones so don’t try and be overly detailed or ambitious. Find something you love, break it down, make a simplified version of it and work from there. 

4. My fourth tip would be going to galleries, go to exhibitions, be inspired by what you love around you, find what you love, live and breathe what you love. Find others who have the same inspirations as you and share your love of it all together. Make art or just create in whatever form it manifests.

5. My last tip would be to attend a printmaking workshop.  I truly think these workshops are the way forward. They are an excellent and affordable way to have a taste of something to find out if you love it or not. It’s also the easiest way to surround yourself with likeminded people. You will receive expert advice on this medium, you’ll be inspired by other people where you can generate and bounce ideas off each other. It’s the perfect gift to give someone!         

   
   
   
   

   

   "Moonlit Street"

   
   

What projects are you currently working on and other than She Rose, where can people view your work?

 I have recently completed project for Broadstairs town team which celebrated our amazing volunteers who keep our gardens looking glorious all year round…this was four separate lino prints which is what threw me back into Reduction linocuts as I wanted to use multiple colours for each design but would have in involved buying 27 separate pieces of lino! I am currently working on a poster design for Atkin Guitars which are a local handmade guitar company who have made guitars for the likes of Ed Sheeran, Dolly Parton, Paul McCartney to name but a few! 

The poster is to celebrate their 30th year of business! 

You can view my work in my Etsy shop  cathdeesonlinocuts.etsy.com

We have a small selection of Cath's work and cards available to purchase online. https://www.jooakley.co.uk/cathdeeson