Sarah Cemmick is a full-time linocut printmaker specialising in wildlife. She creates limited edition, hand-carved prints in her studio (fifteen steps from her kitchen door) that was built by her husband David and a joiner (who used to work for George Lucas and built the Star Wars sets) four years ago. Sarah’s studio has everything she needs to create, and the centrepiece is her John etching press.
The printmaker’s design process begins with the creation of lots of sketches, which are followed by drawings in marker pen. The line Sarah creates in her linocuts is very strong, and working with markers gives her an idea of the finished design. This is then transferred onto the lino block with carbon paper, and she is ready to start carving. The carving process can take hours, or even days, depending on the complexity of the drawing. “I love that until you roll that first layer of ink on the block, you never quite know what you’ll get” describes Sarah.
More recently Sarah has been finishing her lino prints with watercolour, making each print in the edition, usually of 25, different. Sarah has called the English county of Cumbria home for the last sixteen years; “It’s close to my parents, and even though the weather is completely unreliable it is home“. From her front door she can walk straight onto the fells or towards woodland where she witnesses hares, birds, badgers and deer, which all feature in her work. She continues; “The only location that could tempt me away is a dream to live and work in Mallorca, there is something so special about the light and being near the sea“.
“Printmaking is an integral part of my life. It’s how I think and feel about my work. If I want to be creative it’s how I visualise the process to finished artwork. I create because it’s who I am, I need to share my work and I’m not precious to keep it to myself. There is no better feeling than seeing someone connecting with your creations. I have had collectors share tears of joy and happiness with me and it’s magic.”
With a passion for wildlife, Sarah enjoys capturing this movement and feeling in every linocut she creates. Never destroying the blocks at the end of the edition, but still honouring the edition size, she explains that “the blocks are things of beauty and my heart and soul has gone into making them“.
Sarah started her business nearly twenty five years ago when she graduated from Sunderland University with a degree in Environmental Illustration. After receiving funding from the Princes Trust Young Enterprise, she became a full time artist. Having taken a break to raise her two children, Sarah has been printmaking full time for the last ten years.
With the plan to keep on working, designing and being as creative as she possibly can, Sarah concludes; “It’s what I do best and my life would be a shadow without it… I would like to challenge myself to break out of my comfort zone and look to other subjects for inspiration. I’m not sure exactly what just yet but keep watching…“.
www.scemmick.wix.com
@sarahcemmicklinocuts
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