Joanna Padfield Art

There is a natural and raw understanding in Mukesh Sharma’s prints that both depict, and are influenced by, the Rajastani communities of his home town in rural India. In these Limited Edition fine-art prints, made over a period of twenty years, we are offered the colours of India’s ancient land, the textures, light and the patterns that are everywhere. In the patterns of the arable fields to the jali's (carved screens) in the architecture. This work is however not romantic nor nostalgic but shows a deeper rooted need to offer a visual heritage of place, of where the artist is from and the journey that he is taking. The results are both compelling and honest. Mukesh Sharma, Celebration B, Lino-cut on Drawing paper Edition: 3 of 5, 2005 Image size: 47 x 39 cm / Sheet size: 79 x 55 cm Unframed Mukesh Sharma's work: It is often in childhood that paths are set for what we will become. Mukesh Sharma hails from a rural, agricultural village in Rajasthan, India. His Father is a craftsman who fixed and mended farm machinery and understood the working parts in the processes. Sharma followed in his Father’s footsteps, as is often the case in Indian families, but his was not the machines of the fields but the presses of the printing studio. Like his Father, Mukesh Sharma is fascinated with understanding how things work and how he can manipulate the metal in his hands. It is not surprising then that his medium of choice is printing. One of the most physically challenging of all the practices, it can often be physically challenging as well as technical and detailed. In his youth, Sharma would draw with stones on walls and floors. He was lucky his family encouraged this and he is grateful for his early art-training at the Jaipur School of Art but it was at the Baroda Art Department that he was introduced to the great printing traditions of Jyoti Bhatt...

This is an unique one-off Artist Proof in a stunning large square format and its hand-painted detail bringing still life to modernity; its outstanding hand-painted quality and rare...

This is an unique one-off Artist Proof, in a rare Extra-Large square format. A special Proof that only 3 have been made with hand gilded Gold Leaf. The outstanding hand-painted qua...

Leonard Merchant's mezzotint, "Snail in Cup" is inscribed for fellow artist, Fritz Eichenberg. While a student at the Central School for Arts and Crafts in London, a young Leonard Marchant found an engraving rocker in a cupboard and proceeded to turn himself into a master of the painstaking art of mezzotinting. Marchant, who has died in Shrewsbury aged 70, grew up in Simonstown, the Royal Navy's enclave in South Africa. Though his first job was as a parliamentary messenger, he taught himself to paint and, aged 19, was given a one-man show in Cape Town. Fired by this success, he left for England to study painting and, he claimed, to escape the stifling home atmosphere created by his Catholic mother and aunts. (His father was killed in the second world war.) Without contacts in London, he phoned Jacob Epstein, whose recommendation resulted in a grant to study briefly at the Central School. It was later, when studying full-time at the Central, that he saw the mezzotints of the Japanese master, Yozo Hamaguchi, in a London gallery. He was hooked. Creating a mezzotint is tedious in the extreme. The copper plate must first be prepared with a "rocker" which roughens the surface. A plate may be "rocked" 30 or 40 times. The rough texture is then reduced with a burnisher and a scraper, allowing the print a range of tones from velvety black through the greys to white. Marchant's plates could be months in the making. But the technical demands were the least of his worries. In its 18th- and 19th-century heyday, mezzotint was solely a reproductive medium, for copying masters such as Reynolds and Turner. The development of photography rendered it unfashionable, and by the 1960s the technique, known as la manière anglaise, was a bygone medium. Marchant, by now a teacher in printmaking at the Central, began to create original mezzotints with a colleague, Radavan Kraguly. A perfectionist, he seemed to revel in the straitjacket procedure. Perhaps it was the metaphor of bringing darkness out of light that appealed to this straight-talking, sometimes sombre, man, who would suddenly relax and light up like a gleaming hue on one of his prints. His work was of squares and triangles with the occasional cat, black and ominous, and carefully arranged still lifes, featuring plants, a seed pod, a pot he might have bought at auction to celebrate the sale of a print. There were one-man shows, notably at the Bankside Gallery. He sold well at the Royal Academy summer exhibition, was a Florence Biennale prizewinner, spent a fellowship year at the British School in Rome, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. But making mezzotints was not a paying job. Marchant and his South African wife...

"Centre Cross" etching that incorporates religious imagery by Charon Kopriva. Signed, Titled, and dated by the artist at the bottom of the print. Editioned 3/15. Dimensions Without ...

"The Scar by China Miéville is a novel which has been a part of my life for many years, and has travelled as my companion through since adolescence. I've attempted to depict the Avan...

Screen print on Saunders Waterford 300gsm paper Hand-signed, dated, and numbered by the artist 28 × 32.8 cm Edition of 150 FRAMED The print was editioned by master printer, Kip Gresham at The Print Studio, Cambridge for Kettle's Yard. It was made using an original drawing ‘cut’ into an acrylic sheet. The image is then reversed when printed. Description from the publisher: "Drawing has been fundamental to Ai Weiwei’s artistic practice from an early age. He also has a longstanding love of cats, and they appear frequently in the artist’s social media posts. Many cats used to roam his studio in Beijing. As part of the Kettle’s Yard exhibition, Ai’s ‘Cats wallpaper...

Screen print on Saunders Waterford 300gsm paper Hand-signed, dated, and numbered by the artist 45 x 62 cm Edition 78 of 300 The print was editioned by master printer, Kip Gresham at The Print Studio, Cambridge for Kettle's Yard. It was made using an original drawing ‘cut’ into an acrylic sheet. The image is then reversed when printed. Description from the publisher: "Drawing has been fundamental to Ai Weiwei’s artistic practice from an early age. He also has a longstanding love of cats, and they appear frequently in the artist’s social media posts. Many cats used to roam his studio in Beijing. As part of the Kettle’s Yard exhibition, Ai’s ‘Cats wallpaper...

This high-quality print on aluminum dibond, hand-numbered and signed by the artist, features a surreal scene of a tabby cat atop a table, set against a floral background that evokes ...

[ Bird of Paradise] La Pie de paradise, vue par derriere , No.21, Paris 1801-1806 [Astrapia nigra]. Color-printed engraving with hand-coloring. French botanical and zoological illustrator Jacques Barraband (1767-1809) was known as one of the finest ornithological artists of his time .He is best known for his watercolors and engravings that were commissioned by François LeVaillant, French explorer, naturalist, zoological collector , noted ornithologist and author. Levaillant’s Histoire naturelle des perroquets (1801-05) and his Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de paradis (Birds of Paradise, 1801-06), both of which Barraband contributed to, are still considered some of the most beautiful bird books of all times because of their exceptional scientific accuracy, rich color and detail. The Astrapia nigra is a Bird of Paradise that inhabits the Vogelkop Peninsula of West Papua...

David Shrigley I'm Sorry I Can't Promise It Won't Happen Again, 2021 8 colour screenprint with a varnish overlay on Somerset Satin Tub sized 410 gsm 75 x 56 cm Edition of 125 + 4 APs...

Artist: Keiko Minami, Japanese (1911 - 2004) Title: Bird On Flower Year: circa 1985 Medium: Aquatint Etching, Signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 12...