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In such strange times – and as there won’t be an official opening reception – I thought I’d put a few words together about this show; “Drawn to print”.

First of all, let me fill you in a little about the background to all of this.

I loved drawing from an early age, and while in school I attended art classes every Saturday afternoon with George Collie and Dick Free in a very rickety studio on Schoolhouse Lane.

In 1978 I got into NCAD and after a year in Pre-Diploma I progressed to Fine Art. At the time, my heart was set on being a painter, but the seeds had been sewn in that first year for a department I had absolutely no experience in: the Print Department. The only prints I had made up until then were with potatoes!

The moment I walked into the print room in Kildare Street I was hooked. It was an enormous open space housed in the the ballroom of the original house. There were several printing presses including a magnificent Columbian press featuring a cast iron eagle.

The different processes were like magic to me and I couldn’t wait to learn all about this alchemy. And, as good luck would have it Jackie Stanley, my tutor, encouraged me to continue working with print.

It was a time of enormous change for the college, so the print tutors were equally diverse, from the very traditional to the totally experimental.

After graduating college, at (Little) John Kelly’s suggestion, I joined the newly founded Black Church Print Studio, working there for for over 30 years. Recently I moved to the Graphic Studio, the oldest print studio in Ireland. I also have a studio at home. (Ed: and a forgiving husband)

Printmaking covers an enormous area, even focusing on one technique the possibilities are endless. I am now printing for over 40 years, constantly experimenting with a wide range of materials and techniques and as a naturally curious person, I don’t feel I will ever stop learning.

In this show I have included large-scale drawings that I made in Ireland and Italy. Some of the prints are from my latest series, “Outside in”. In these I have taken some of my favourite artistic heroes, as in “Mr Morris’s wonderful wallpaper”. I filled his silhouette with his famous “Strawberry thief” pattern as well as embossing the paper with his design, “Acanthus”.
In “Homage to Piero della Francesca”, I have taken his portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino and put the background landscapes within their profiles. This is the image you see on the invitation.

I hope you will enjoy this new work and if you would like to find out more about the work or the techniques please visit my website www.marie-louisemartin.com

Calendars of my work for 2021 will also be on sale in the club at €10 each. Or, you can order them directly fom me.

Marie-Louise Martin
September 2020