Print Collectors Club

Alex Beattie ARE Elected ARE 2023

We Carry Treasure

silkscreen print, edition of 40

image size 27 x 36cm

paper size 30 x 42cm

£160 unframed

The donkey nervously shifts its weight on the carpet of flowers, unaware that it carries the shrine of a prophet on its back. We Carry Treasure is meant as a gentle reminder of the power and wisdom we hold. We travel through life from birth to dust, and along the way we leave echoes of our dreams and identity – some that bear fruit and some that don’t. But we carry beauty in us, and we are not wasted. The journey is always worthwhile.

Alex’s print works draw the viewer into celestial dreamscapes of colour, symbolism and the supernatural. They take joyful inspiration from everything and anything; Byzantine mosaic to socialist poster art, Hokusai to videogames.

This print is produced as a seven-layer hand-pulled silkscreen print, where successive layers of transparent pigment are overlaid precisely to build up the image, producing a whole spectrum of dense, vibrant colours. Each of his works is entirely hand-drawn. He collages individual elements together, to create a final image with a bold, graphic unity. He then works back from that to the colour separations, ready for printing. 

Alex is an artist and printmaker, working in London. He studied Textile Design at Chelsea, UAL and since then his creative practice has expanded across paper and fabric, mosaic and digital.

He exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2021 and was included in Grayson Perry’s selection of prints at the RA Summer Show in 2022. Alex’s most recent solo show was Impossible Beauty, at The Bomb Factory Art Foundation, Covent Garden in January 2024.

John Duffin ARWS RE Elected ARE 1991, RE 1995

King’s Cross, 2024

etching, edition of 150

25 x 30cm image size

30 x 42cm paper size

£160 unframed

This new work by John Duffin was produced from drawings and sketches made around King’s Cross station at night. It is part of an ongoing series of prints of parts of London that have been important to him during his life in the city. John was born in Barrow-in-Furness, but is now living and working in London and the city has become a central part of his subject matter. Sir Peter Blake RA has described his etchings as “outstanding and exciting depictions of city life.”

From these initial quick drawings in situ made in charcoal, pencil and ink, he creates several more detailed drawings back at his studio before arriving at a composition that captures his imaginative recollection of the subject. This final image is then transferred onto polished copper by drawing with a series of needles through a wax ground, exposing the areas of the image on the copper that are then treated with ferric chloride acid. The plate is then inked up with oil-based ink, then wiped until the ink resides only in the grooves bitten by the acid. The plate is then put through an etching press against a piece of damp paper to transfer the image.

John Duffin is a member of the RE (Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers) and is also an associate member of RWS (Royal Watercolour Society).  His work is in many public collections including Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum of London, Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, Ashmolean Museum Oxford, Arts Council Collection and many private collections in the UK and abroad. He studied BA Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in the late 1980's under Michael Craig Martin RA and studied MA Printmaking at Central St Martins under Norman Ackroyd RA.

Sonia Martin RE Elected ARE 2017, RE 2023

Mountain View

etching & aquatint, edition of 35

image size 20 x 25cm

paper size 30 x 42cm

£160 unframed

Sonia’s work features intriguing figures, each a product of the artist’s imagination. They often appear to be searching for their place in the world. This work Mountain View suggests a figure reflecting on her past experiences and her future hopes.

Sonia explains “the beginning of an etching can be a word or phrase, something seen or remembered which is then developed through drawings and sketches from life into an imaginary composition.”

Sonia creates her prints mainly in etching or monotype. The work she has produced for Print Collectors Club was made using the traditional method of etching and aquatint on copper plate.

She uses her drawings as a guide for transferring the image directly onto the etching plate. The plate is covered in a waxy substance known as ‘ground’ which is removed by each line drawn into it, exposing the metal plate underneath. This is then immersed in a solution of ferric chloride which etches into the drawn line. The next stage uses aquatint which creates areas of tone in the image. Finally, ink is added to the plate, and this ink sits in the etched areas. When then passed through the etching press, the image is transferred onto the paper.

Sonia Martin lives in London UK and studied Fine Art at City & Guilds and a Masters in printmaking at Camberwell College of Art.

Sonia has been awarded artist residencies in India, Ireland, Bolivia, Spain and Mexico and she is a recipient of a Pollock-Krasner award for her prints. She has exhibited widely, including at the Royal Academy and the London Original Print Fair. Her work is represented in public and private collections in the UK and internationally.