Exhibition: Material Process
I took part in Material Process, a group exhibition at Kendal Museum’s People’s Gallery. It was a return to a town I lived in years ago, and an opportunity for the North Cumbria Crit Group to exhibit together across a wide range of media under an umbrella title that put process—and material choices—front and centre.
The show brought together work from a north Cumbrian collective, curated around materials and process: ceramics, glass, paint, printmaking, sculpture, and digital mark making.
Exhibition details
- The People’s Gallery, Kendal Museum
- 8 June – 1 July
- Thu–Sat, 9.30–4.30
- Admission free
- Info: https://kendalmuseum.org.uk/
Artists Anne Waggot Knott, Dorothy Ramsay, Laura M R Harrison, Catriona Archibald, Susan Young, Jane Corbett, Steve Meyfroidt, Amy Story, Leo Ponton
I showed a small part of my Fundamental body of work (also shown recently at Gallery 4a in Penrith), alongside a new set of four monoprint drypoints. These were the first prints I was really happy with from my new etching press.
The prints started with a simple observation at home: shadows falling through a window onto a wooden chest in our living room. I made quick sketches through the day from different viewpoints, plus a few photographs. When I looked back later, it was the geometry that kept pulling me in—especially the head-on view.
I found a simple composition: three stacked arrangements of light and shadow across the top of the chest. I wanted to push it further, and I thought it might become an etching.
To explore the geometry—and the different planes of perspective—I built a small software drawing machine. Once it worked for the chest shape, I could quickly try variations. Over time it became a set of four related drawings.
After testing physical drawings with different pens and papers (using the pen plotter driven by my software), I realised printmaking was the better route. That sent me through another loop of experiments: different plate materials, different plotting approaches, different pressures and inking.
Eventually I landed on a process that clicked: drypoint on aluminium, made with the plotter. It’s not just possible—it’s genuinely exciting.
