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Anja Percival

Anja Percival
Cafelight XI
Etching
£560 framed
Image size 70 x 89cm

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Anja Percival's work combines collagraph and etching techniques to build up multilayered imagery with rich, textural surfaces. She is fascinated by the different atmospheres that light creates in both our rural and urban environments. Anja Percival's work is a personal portrait of our landscape; it is influenced by how she sees the world around her, drawing upon her favourite elements from our rich visual existence.

ANJA PERCIVAL BIOGRAPHY

Anja Percival - Cafelights

Anja Percival - Stationlight X

Anja Percival - Palm House

I am a printmaker, and the majority of my work combines collagraph and etching techniques to build up multilayered imagery with rich, textural surfaces. My prints utilise both representational and abstract elements, to produce images that portray my experience of the landscape.

I am fascinated by the different atmospheres that light creates in both our rural and urban environments. Since moving to Denmark in 2005, I have been hugely inspired by my new surroundings and my most recent work has been influenced by the more ‘urban’ scenery within which I live.

My compositions aim to combine different moods of light, with contrasting space and surface qualities. I enjoy working with a variety of etching techniques, including aquatint, ‘soft’ ground, ‘white’ ground and burnishing, which result in subtle tonal differences within my imagery. I also now sometimes incorporate a technique called ‘sugarlift’ , which gives the result of a solid black line, rather like drawing with black ink. This gives me a more spontaneous and fluid approach, as I try to capture the impression of my new surroundings with a simple line.

My work is a personal portrait of our landscape; it is influenced by how I see the world around me, drawing upon my favourite elements from our rich visual existence.

Education and Qualifications

1998 - 2002 Falmouth College of Arts, B.A. (Hons) Fine Art

1996 - 1998 Experimental Officer in Developmental Biology at Bath University

1991 - 1995 The University of Edinburgh, B.Sc. (Hons) Biological Science, Anatomy

Memberships and Residencies

June 2007 Membership to Grafik i Väst, Gothenburg, Sweden.

May 2006, Membership to Fyns Grafiske Værksted, Odense.

Jan 2006 Membership to Grafisk Værksted Havarthigaarden, Holte, Copenhagen.

Nov 2005 Full Membership to Newlyn Society of Artists.

Jun 2005 Five months residency at The National Workshops for Arts and Crafts at the Gammel Dok Pakhus in Copenhagen.

Nov 2004 Membership to Northern Print Studio, Newcastle.

Jun 2002 Membership to Aniela Regini Printworks in Penryn, Cornwall

Jun 1999 Membership to Porthmeor Printmakers Society, St. Ives, Cornwall.

Current Exhibition Participation includes a solo exhibition at Kulturmaskinen, Odense, Denmark, and in April 2009, I will have a solo exhibition at Montana Møbler, Haarby, Denmark.

Previous solo exhibition venues

September 2008, Ardo A/S, Slipshavnsvej 2, DK 5800 Nyborg, Denmark.

September 2008, CornwallContemporary, Penzance, Cornwall.

March 2008, Cafe Biografen, Odense.

October 2007, St Giles StreetGallery in Norwich

September 2007, Printmakers Gallery in St. Ives

April 2007, Galleri5000, Odense

April 2007, Andersen & Blæsbjerg Reklamebureau, Odense

A Space, Southampton

DLI Museum & Durham Art Gallery, Durham

Great Atlantic Gallery, St. Just, Cornwall

Great Atlantic Gallery, Monmouth, Wales

Kirk Originals, Covent Garden, London

Background

Although I am now totally committed to a career in art, for many years my education and employment took me along a very different pathway.

From relatively early on in my education, it was apparent that I was not destined for an 'office' job. Throughout my school years, I had a love for art which seemed to battle against my interest in the sciences, especially biology. Not wanting to turn my back on art completely, I took it as a fourth 'A' level alongside three science subjects. But my interest in 'hands-on' experimentation and a methodical working process finally swung the balance towards a scientific career... perhaps decided, in the end, by persuasive teachers who argued that art was "an uncertain career with no solid prospects".

So my science career began, leading me through a Human Anatomy degree at Edinburgh University, to employment as a Research Assistant in the department of Developmental Biology at Bath University. I was investigating the growth and development of the pancreas, and practical work included tissue dissection and isolation, tissue culture, and identification experiments using cell labelling techniques to determine which cell types grew where during the formation of the pancreas.

Although I enjoyed the manual work involved, I soon realised that the scientific scene was not right for me. I felt out of place as I didn't share the enthusiasm for the research that my co-workers had such a passion for, and I began to think about what was missing. Essentially the job lacked flexibility ... experiments had to follow certain protocols and be governed by long established laws and rules of science, leaving no room for personal expression or creativity. I also realised that the aspect of the job which did fascinate me was the visual element of the research... I was frequently engrossed by the view down the microscope of the evolving tissue cultures, as the cell labeling techniques we employed revealed amazing images of tiny variations in form, texture and colour. Therefore the decision to shift career came from a slow subconscious realisation of where my interests lay within the scientific field - the aesthetics of nature - then a focus on my creative abilities to reflect this.

So in 1998 I left my job in science and began a fresh career at art college. For me, the study of nature became the bridge between my scientific and artistic careers. Both science and art examine the intricacies of nature, the difference between them lying in the motive and intentions behind the study. Scientific research is searching for explanations - to make the 'how' and 'why' more understandable. Art can hold many different fascinations with nature, but in my case I used it to reflect the aesthetic qualities in the world around us. I looked at the results of nature's processes, instead of looking at the origins.

My early work utilised motifs from nature to create pieces of work that emulate an appreciation of the rich variation in pattern, form, texture and colour that surrounds me. Subsequent work made more obvious references to nature's sublime quality... I wanted my work to touch on the aspect of nature that can not be explained by our laws and science. My scientific background had an effect on my artwork in other ways too: I frequently mixed scales from micro and macro climates, to result in somewhat ambiguous images, possessing alternative identities. Previous microscope work in the lab presented views that were often abstract, lacking identity... tiny details of the specimen often revealing whole new 'landscapes' under the lens.

My working process is still oddly reminiscent of my lab days, often beginning with writing; ideas, rough methods and hopeful outcomes, all with quite a methodical approach. And I will always enjoy the physical processes of printmaking, as I enjoyed manual work in the research lab - the experimentation, and getting my hands dirty. The one important contrast to my former career is that I can now enjoy the creative freedom to make my own decisions and take control over my own work. The results are individual, personal ... how I see and experience our surroundings.

I certainly don't regret my time spent as a research assistant. I learnt a great deal about self motivation and organisation, and if I had not had such strong reservations about my place in the science scene, then I may not have made such a drastic career change! In fact, it is fair to say that science laid the foundations for where I am today, by revealing what was important to me about my work.

Printmaking Techniques

The images by Anja Percival are all fine art prints. Although the term 'print' implies that a photographic process is involved, this is not the case. The techniques outlined below describe processes used by printmakers, not printers; this distinction is important, as many of her prints are as original as paintings, and not just 'carbon copies' as many people mistakenly believe.

Anja Percival's work normally incorporates a combination of etching and collagraph techniques.

The traditional etching process involves producing an image from a metal plate, usually zinc, copper or steel. The surface of the metal is first coated with a waxy layer ('resist' or 'ground') and then the image is applied by hand onto this surface. The 'drawing' process removes the resist to expose the metal below. So when the plate is immersed in an acidic solution, the drawing is permanently 'etched' or eaten into the otherwise flat metal surface to produce roughened areas, or grooves. Once the ground is washed off, the plate is covered with etching ink. Careful polishing of the surface of the plate leaves ink only in these grooves, as the ink clings to the roughened areas and not the polished surface. This ink is then transferred from metal to paper by the application of extreme pressure in an etching press.

A collagraph plate differs from an etching plate as texture is built up on the surface of the plate to form a relief, rather than extending below the surface level of the plate like the grooves on an etching plate. Any waterproof surface will do; I normally use varnished card or thick acetate, and create the image using materials that solidify to form durable 'edges' or texture on the base plate, such as thick acrylic paint, waterproof PVA or moulding paste. Once dry and sealed with varnish, the edges of the relief capture the ink as metal grooves would, which is again transferred onto paper via an etching press.

There are many different grounds, mark making techniques and plate preparations which can create different qualities of line, tone and texture on the metal's surface. The word 'aquatint' refers to a technique which creates differences in tone on the resulting print; a lightly aquatinted plate would hold relatively little black ink to produce soft grey tones, whereas a 'dark' aquatint would hold more ink, giving a deeper grey / black tone, resulting from a rougher metal surface. The term 'sugar lift' refers to a techique which uses a sugary solution that can be painted onto the plate in selective areas, before the plate is coated with the waxy resist. This solution later dissolves and lifts off in hot water, taking it's waxy coating with it, thus exposing the metal underneath for etching. This method is traditionally used for producing darker, clearer lines, but as with many etching techniques, can also be combined and adapted with other processes to create a variety of effects.

The colour prints that I produce are all slightly different, as I apply ink to the plate in much the same way as one would paint a canvas. So printmaking in this selective way allows for much variation in colour and distribution of ink across the paper; for this reason no two colour prints are the same. In the case of my black and white imagery, although I can still be selective with ink density, the finished print will obviously show less variation. However they are by no means simple copies; each print is individually hand produced, and there is a finite number of prints taken from each plate. This is partly restricted by the perishability of the metal plate's surface caused by successive runs though the printing press, but also by my wish to keep each image relatively original, and precious.

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