This month we welcome a new member to our group of permanent exhibiting artists at Chalk Gallery, the artist Lucy Cooper who works with the media of screen print. Lucy's work makes a strong visual impact with her iconic imagery and positive colour palette, so we are delighted to introduce her work in the new exhibition soon to be curated.
Lucy’s passion for print began when she visited a printer as a young girl. As her mother’s book rolled off the press, the magic of letterpress fascinated her – and she still maintains that it was the smell of the ink that determined her future in print and publishing!
Since then, she has been involved with print in one form or another throughout her life: as a student working with local printers on publicity materials; in her publishing career as a production manager visiting large litho printers to pass books on press; and in her non-work interests and activities.
But it was when she took a weekend course in screen printing at Glasgow Print Studio that everything seemed to click into place: her passion for print, her need for creativity, her love of colour...the excitement of seeing a new print emerge. She was hooked!
Lucy has since developed her practice in a range of locations, including courses at the Glasgow School of Art, as a member of Thames-side Print Studio, and more recently at North Star Studios in Brighton and Ink Spot Press in Hove.
Last summer Lucy took the leap of leaving her day job as commissioning editor and moving to Brighton in order to spend more time on her art. She is now focussing on developing her body of work and she prints at Ink Spot on a regular basis.
At Chalk we know already that Lucy has made the right decision and feel she won't regret it! Her original hand-pulled screen prints will be available for purchase in the gallery and online shop, and she also creates digitally-developed photographic prints and greetings cards.