Jillian Harvey

Printmaker Jillian Harvey’s aesthetic is born from her love of design, pattern, and botanical and architectural forms. Her projects are mainly self motivated, based on her pure enjoyment of producing screen prints and digital work. Based in Hants, UK, Jillian has exhibited at galleries locally as well as selling her large format screen prints. As a spin off from this, she also produces digital greetings cards and prints based on her botanical sketches which are sold on her website and at the Garden Museum in London.

In her previous incarnation, Jillian was the Director of an auction house in London. This job took her all over the world, igniting her passion for travel. She left this world a few years ago to pursue her love of art ,and enrolled at West Dean college to study a Foundation diploma. From there, Jillian went to UCA in Farnham to study Art & Design, and took that qualification to Chichester University where she achieved a BA (1st) in Fine Art, majoring in printmaking. “I graduated when I was 63, so you could say I was a late bloomer,” says the printmaker.

Jillian tells us; “I love process, and you could not get more process led than printmaking”. Thus, she has used and experimented with most of the approaches to print; Lino, etching, woodcut, wood engraving, and mono print. However, what caught her attention the most was screen printing.

Her prints are produced in her own studio which she designed and had built in her garden, and incorporates a darkroom and a washout room! Ideas for Jillian’s screen prints are initiated by a sketch or a photograph. In order to get the image on to screen, she works out what layers are needed for each composition, and uses Illustrator to either print onto translucent paper or an acetate. Each layer has its own image, and these are then developed onto a screen using photosensitive emulsion. Once the screens are ready (a process than can take anything from 1 – 3 days) Jillian starts looking at a colour palette. Her preferred inks are water-based, and she mixes her own colours. Jillian describes; “Then the work begins….I have two separate areas in my studio, one is the dry side where I measure and cut my paper; my favourite paper is Fabriano, either Rosaspina or Unica smooth, 280 gsm. Although I have a composition in my minds eye, I print and respond, nothing is set in stone. Several test prints are made as even the colour palette can change at this stage.”  She prefers to work in A2/A3 size, and all of her prints are produced in editions of between 5 and 10.

Inspiration for her work comes from her travels, with a strong focus on Japanese aesthetics. “I like to pick up the smallest detail from the organic to the architecture of the place I am in; it’s a never ending source of inspiration and enriches my practice, as does my garden at home where I grow my own cut flowers,” states Jillian.

As a member of the Society of Designer Craftsmen, last year Jillian took part in an exhibition at the Oxmarket in Chichester. Next year, she will work in a collaboration with other ex alumni from Chichester University to create an exhibition based on the world map.

Considering the future of her practice, Jillian aims to approach more galleries, continue to exhibit, and focus on adding to her product offering on her store. She concludes; “There is always something new to learn and be inspired by. Curiosity always drives me forward.”

jillianharvey.com
@jharveyart

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