Gillian Salway OPC, WOA – portfolio

Contact the artist

01865 881934
gillsalwayat icloud.com

Mobile no    07495704508

Exhibition information

First lock-down and then family circumstances have meant that over the last few years I have become increasingly reliant on and appreciative of the contents of my house and garden as the starting point for work. Tending and rearranging the plants in my conservatory, dusting ( not often) my collection of ceramics and small sculptures, noting the fortuitous composition of clothes thrown on a chair or cushions on a sofa, can all lead to a rediscovery of the richness of everyday experience.  

     I’m very influenced by the Japanese aesthetic where objects exist pared back, uncrowded in their space, but where their relationship to one another and attention to small detail can make even the mundane seem fresh and new. Much of my work incorporates collagraph where a print is taken from plates, usually made of thick card, which can be incised or built up to create texture and which are like little relief sculptures in themselves. In contrast with this I like to use direct printing from found material, particularly plants from the garden, which introduce an element of spontaneity into the composition. 

Artist information

After reading Classics at Cambridge and a few years working as a librarian I took a post-graduate degree in art history and spent most of my professional life teaching the history of art and design. On retirement I decided that it was time to get to grips with the practicalities myself and enrolled as a (very) mature student on the BA Fine Art course at Banbury. There I divided my time between sculpture and printmaking and after graduation have worked independently as a printmaker. I have had a long association with West Ox Arts and was Chairman from 2006 to 2012. Besides exhibiting with WOA I am also a member of the Oxford Printmakers Cooperative and regularly contribute to their exhibitions. In common with many printmakers I have developed a real appreciation of paper as a material, not just a support, which has led me into the related fields of origami and making artists books.