Final evaluation

I wanted to become a printer and now I feel I have made a start. It has taken me two years to finish the course and looking back to when I started it my life was completely different. I then slipped a disc in my back necessitating two months off work, I was made redundant and had to find a new job, which meant commuting to London again but throughout it all I kept printing.

I felt my initial tutor was unhelpful and only seemed to answer my queeries with one line e mails so I changed tutors and have been very lucky with Niki who takes a lot of trouble reviewing my work and provides comprehensive feeback that I have found invaluable.

Because Printing is technical it has been quite hard teaching myself from the written materials rather than having access to a print studio with a tutor to show me how to do it, this has made me inventive in coming up with solutions and I am very independant as a result. I'd like to compare my work with other peoples work though and maybe I will get a chance at some point. The experience of being in a group would have been a bonus and would've made the course richer. But I have a day job so it's a question of what is possible. I may book myself onto a residential course in some aspect of printing at some point.

I have found it difficult to track down the work of contempory printers other than on the internet although I have managed to get to about three print exhibitions. The work on display always seems to be a bit conventional for my tastes as I definitely like painterly prints and painterly printers have been hard to find. The Bankside Gallery near the Tate has become a favourite gallery and is home to the Painter Print Makers Society. I am the only printmaker in our local art society and I think I need to join a printmakes group if I can find one that will have me.

But the positives far out way the negatives and I am so glad to have been able to find a new way of articulating my creative ideas and one that presents so many fasci nating alternatives and oppportunities to explore.

I am pleased that this course has made me serious about printing. I'm interested to see how my printing influences my watercolours when I start painting again because I have not really done any watercolours for the past two years.

My biggest regret is that I haven't related my work to the work of well know printers and when I do printmaking at the higher level as I progress towards my degree this is something I must address.

I do all my printing in a shed down the garden which has not been ideal and I crave a proper studio with a press and drying racks etc etc. I will now pack up my shed for the winter and contemplate my next move.