Candy Walker
Describe your background
My parents were in advertising in the 1960s, as London was swinging into the new modern age. Gilbert and Sullivan, Victorian architecture and Morris wallpaper were out; jazz, picture windows and Picasso were in.
All forms of creativity were encouraged in our house and we four children threw ourselves into music, theatricals and artistic projects, and like our parents, we were all great readers.
I found my strict academic school very oppressive. My homework was never done, I couldn’t find my gym shoes, and I dreaded going every morning.
The sixth form was more fun. I spent most of my time messing about in the art room and then I applied to art school.
When did you become a printmaker and why?
I did my first etchings at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford. I was intrigued by the process but found it very difficult and did not attempt it again for many years.
In the cast room of the Ashmolean museum, I learned to draw ‘from the antique’, and my interest in the classical and romantic increased in the subsequent two years I spent living in Rome with my husband.
There I discovered Piranesi’s etchings, which were a revelation to me.
In the following years I was busy with my family. I did some pen and ink illustration work and worked part time doing art in holiday centres in primary schools. I loved making props, scenery and costumes for our theatrical productions with the children.
I took up etching again because I needed a distraction at a sad time in my life. I thought etching, with all its complicated planning, could help me be more organised and patient.
Through a friend at the Putney School of Art and Design I joined Richmond Printmakers, and through that, and membership of Kew Studios, I began to take part in exhibitions.
What is your preferred medium and why?
Drawing on paper, in pencil or pen and ink is my first love, but I also like the strong shapes and colours you can create with lino-cutting, so I try to combine both these aspects of art in my etchings.
Are any of your family artists or printmakers?
My family are all creative and two are musicians but no one is a professional artist.
If your house was burning down what would you save?
My husband’s most prized possessions are two volumes of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language which I would try to save for him. Otherwise, only our cats.
How do you sum up your approach to art?
I think I am a natural illustrator inspired more by words than by art or nature. I want my etchings to have an atmosphere and suggest a story – sometimes a rather mysterious one – a puzzle for the viewer to ponder.
