Lisa Hooper, renowned local artist and printmaker, was the speaker at the meeting of the Stewartry U3A on 28 February.
Lisa’s interest and fascination with the local landscape, birds and wildlife is reflected in much of her work and she said that the attraction of the Galloway landscape was one of the reasons for moving to the area and establishing her home and studio in Port William. Inspiration for some of her work is taken from early lino cut artists and from Inuit prints
Her starting point for many of her prints is one of her wildlife photographs from which she then draws an image onto tracing paper and copies onto her printing block. She described the intricate work which she carries out in order to prepare the block for printing, either by hand pressure or in her flatbed press. For prints with more than two colours she makes a number of blocks or uses a reduction printing technique where a number of different colours can be printed.
Lisa said that as a solo artist not all her time could be spent creating her works but inevitably she had to do so much more such as framing and mounting, preparing for exhibitions, producing greeting cards, including for RSPB, community involvement to encourage young people to produce prints as well as running workshops and her gallery.