Stella Alexander
Describe your background
I trained as an illustrator at Richmond upon Thames College. Part of the course was introducing the students to a variety of printmaking techniques, and getting the opportunity to try out various printmaking methods in the studio, which is where I discovered my love of printmaking.
When did you become a printmaker and why?
Although I trained as an illustrator, I have been working as a 3D designer for over 10 years and raising a family. Lockdown gave me the space to re-discover my original passion and take up illustration again. I started with watercolours, but felt my work was getting too tight and not expressive enough. Printmaking forces me to be looser with my lifework and it can give unpredictable results, which for me is half the fun. Now I try to find the discipline to dedicate at least one day a week to printmaking to keep the momentum going.
There is always something new to learn and I enjoy the many processes involved in printmaking. I use linocut, monotype and mezzotint. Each one of these processes offers something different.
Are any of your family artists or printmakers?
Both my parents come from a natural history background. My mother was a taxonomist and a trained botanical artist at Kew, and my father was a bibliographer of natural history art at the Linnean Society of London. Therefore I’ve been surrounded by natural history art from an early age and I think it comes through in most of my work.
What is your preferred medium and why?
I’ve tried various printmaking methods, but lino is the one I get most joy from. I love the process of looking at an image and working out how to reduce it to a restricted colour palette of positive and negative shapes. Occasionally I don’t plan too much how the carving will look and just let the lino tools take their own path.
How do you sum up your approach to art?
Sometimes I have a burst of creative energy and lots of ideas that I’m trying to get on paper all at once, but I can also stagnate for weeks over a single artwork. My solution is don’t fight it and stick to drawing what you love. In my case this is usually animals and the natural world which I find an endless source of inspiration.
