The Society of Wildlife Artists

The SWLA annual exhibition, The Natural Eye, is considered the best exhibition of art inspired by the natural world in the UK. It also has a reputation for exhibiting a superb collection of original prints using wildlife as their theme. Original prints, also known as artists prints, include screen printing (sometimes known as serigraphs), woodcuts, linocuts, etchings, collagraphs and monotypes. Every one of these processes is highly skilled and the finished work possesses different qualities depending on the method involved.

There are beautiful examples of screenprints in the exhibition including Ponds and Willows by Carry Akroyd, Sand Martins over the corn fields by Jane Smith and Northern Gannetry by Kittie Jones, who shares an insight into her process.

The original drawing was made from a boat drifting off the Bass Rock. You'll also see a much earlier stage of the print and me drawing from the boat if you keep going.

Each layer of this screenprint is drawn by hand onto tracing paper. This allows me to keep the immediacy of the drawn mark (which I'm increasingly interested in) and combine it with flatter shapes of translucent colour. I tend to work quite intuitively with my screenprints these days - I plan 3 or 4 layers and then respond to what I have in the next set of layers until I feel the piece is working. There is an element of losing things and finding things as the layers build up which is exciting.

Kittie Jones on making her screenprint Northern Gannetry

Kittie has examples of monotypes on display as well (see below) where she has worked directly onto an inked surface to create a single image, hence the term mono.

Woodblocks and linocuts are processes where the artist cuts their image into a surface, Matt Underwood is a master of woodblock printmaking and creates wonderful pieces rich with texture and colour.

Founder member and master of printmaking, the late Robert Gillmor, was extraordinarily skilled in linocuts. Many of our current members are accomplished linocut printmakers and there are many beautiful works available from the exhibition.

The etching process involves scratching into a surface to create channels in which ink will sit. The surface is then wiped clean, and the etching plate is put through a press so that the ink in the channels is lifted onto the paper. SWLA member artist Marco Brodde has a number of etchings on show, including The Rock and the Capercaillie. Non-member Jane Gardiner has two etchings in the exhibition, including the delicate seascape of Manx Shearwaters in flight.

Giclee prints are not exhibited where they are a commercial reproduction of an original piece of artwork. In recent years, the Society has shown digital works, where the digital print has been created by the artist using a computer as their process and working with their own created content, such as iPad paintings. In these cases, the resulting work is displayed as a numbered, signed, and editioned digital print.

Animator Will Rose has created four short animations based on a sound recording he made of birds in Spain. Alongside his animations, Will has four framed digital prints from his animation.

To browse and buy visit Mall Galleries website.