Originally from Essex, Fiona Mary (Fee) has been living in Newcastle upon Tyne for just over year. Here, she creates relief prints, as well as working across a variety of mediums including animated videos for festivals, logos and social media posts for community organisations, and album covers for musicians. “A tutor in college once described me as a ‘Jack of all trades’ because I didn’t really have a particular style or medium that I stuck to, but since then I have been discovering that actually my adaptability is one of my biggest strengths,” says the artist.
“For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to go into a creative field,” describes Fee. She studied Fine Art and Graphic Design at sixth form college, which she followed with a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, and then graduated with a first class honours degree in Graphic Design and Illustration in 2020. Despite living quite close to London at the time, there was very little available for a recent graduate in the height of the pandemic. Thus, she supported herself with freelance illustration, and then made the “possibly crazy” decision to train to be a teacher. Through this, Fee was able to move to the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. She tells us; “Though I have discovered that without art and design I feel that something is deeply missing from my life. Now, a qualified teacher, I am going back to my roots to see if I can carve a creative career out of my eclectic mixture of skills.”
One of the biggest inspirations for her work is detail. Fee states; “Although that may sound strange – I have always been captivated by images that draw you in and allow for discovery and exploration. A little bit like a ‘Where’s Wally?’ image I suppose. This is why I like to create artwork with a lot of little details – and often no clear focal point.”
Each of Fee’s works begins as a rough drawing in her sketchbook. Once she has settled on a composition, she opens Photoshop and drafts the image. She explains; “This will still be a very messy sketch, but the eraser tool allows me to consider the negative space and which parts of the image I’m going to carve away”. Next she prints the image and transfers it to lino, usually just by tracing the lines in a soft pencil and scribbling over the back of the paper. Fee then goes over the parts she wants to keep in permanent marker to make the carving process easier, and sits in front of a box set and carves away.
She creates her prints at her local printmaking studio using an Albion relief printing press. “Although more modern methods of printmaking are available, I much prefer the process of printing in this more traditional way,” says Fee. Sometimes, she will then scan her prints and add colour digitally, such as in her Ardenweald print. When she does this, Fee uses clipping masks to add a texture to the added digital colour so that the whole image still has a cohesive hand-made feel.
Ultimately, Fee says her aim is to continue to work creatively; “I am not sure whether at this point that will be through freelance or via a rewarding job, but I am currently at the stage where I’m trying to find the career that suits me.”
www.fionamary.myportfolio.com
@fionamaryillu
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