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Artizan Collective are pleased to be working with Delamore Arts for the first time in 2024, bringing an exhibition of Contemporary British Printmakers with supported 3D works to the Carriage Room Gallery, situated within the grounds of the house. We have been regular visitors to Delamore Arts over the years and are excited to embark on this, our first collaboration.

In an offer that we hope will add value to the work that we do with South West creatives, as well as to the experience of visitors to Delamore this year, we will be curating a selection of works from Contemporary British Printmakers along with 3D works, highlighting some of the South West’s best talents in these fields, some emerging names, and a number of faces from further afield.

Often misunderstood, the wonderful world of printmaking is an artform in its own right just like oil or watercolour painting, and like these artforms it is a process by which original works of art are created. Rich and diverse encompassing a huge range of techniques and styles including linocuts, woodcuts, engravings, etchings, lithographs, drypoint, screenprint, and monoprints. Each of these is its own unique practice, requiring vastly different skills and resulting in vastly different styles of work, but all are processes by which original works are handmade by the artist.

Much the same as any other artform, in printmaking there is technique and skill here akin to the careful manipulation of paint on canvas or chisel on stone. This is a process that takes time, perhaps minutes, more likely hours, and the methods involved can be fickle, with success only confirmed when the paper leaves the press. And this all must be preceded by the creation of the design itself; the woodblock, the lino, the etching, the implement with which the print will be made, where the skill of the printmaker is tested as they pre-judge every mark and how it will ultimately appear when it comes to printing.

All of this is what makes printmaking quite so special. Unique to any other form of artwork, exhibiting exceptional technical skill and craftsmanship, and we very much hope that visitors to Delamore in 2024 will enjoy the works that we have selected complimented with some carefully chosen 3D works.