Selected prints from the last 30 years of Northern Print

This exhibition presents works made by a small selection of printmakers associated with Northern Print over the last 30 years – artists who have completed residencies and who have taken part in projects and exhibitions.

We celebrate Northern Print’s international connections with USA based artist Ellen Heck, whose award-winning work was first shown by Northern Print during International Print Biennale 2009. Japan-based artists Eriko Maki and Hiroyuki Suzuki have completed residencies at the studio both on Fish Quay (Northern Print’s previous home) and in Ouseburn – each artist’s prints are inspired and influenced by the nature around them.

Norman Mathieson was involved in setting up the studio, joining the team from Glasgow Print Studio. He now lives in Japan, makes screenprints, woodblocks and etchings – in this show we show two of his early screenprints which are bold, colourful and joyful. 

Julian Meredith’s work is well known for the prussian blue colour he often uses – his work, like Eriko and Hiroyuki’s, is inspired by and concerned with nature – his prints often depict endangered species of fish, birds and mammals. He did a series of ‘Fish Trap’ prints during a residency at Northern Print on Fish Quay and displayed these in the now-demolished lifeboat station in North Shields. He has since created a life-sized woodcut of a blue whale during a residency in the Great Hall, Discovery Museum as part of International Print Biennale.

Eunice Routledge and Joanna Bourne have been making prints at Northern Print for a number of years, both on Fish Quay and in Ouseburn. Both had previously been members of Charlotte Press – a cooperative print studio in Newcastle that closed in the late 1980s and from which we have inherited a number of printing presses. Eunice’s prints are inspired by the seascapes and landscapes of the Northeast; there’s an intensity, richness and texture to her work, which is built up in layers to create her stunning monoprints.

Joanna works in woodcut carefully choosing the piece of wood based on the grain – this builds up texture within her beautiful prints and she often uses the technique of chine collé to add depth and colour within her pieces, which depict her local surroundings in the north east – from fields and cliffs to urban scenes.