Sofie van Schadewijk is a Netherlands-based printmaker and illustrator. She studied Graphic Design at the ArtEZ art academy, but when it comes to relief printmaking, she is completely self-taught. Sofie tells us; “I went through a lot of trial and error and had to learn most of my profession by just going ahead and never give up. By studying artworks from artists I admire, I reassured myself that what I wanted to do, could be achieved if I just kept practising.”
Today, her speciality lies in relief printing. She achieves great detail and textures, and creates dreamy, wonderful scenes with a little bit of magic. “I love making up situations you would never run into in real life, imaginative persons, nature, landscapes, etc,” says the printmaker.
Sofie has been passionate about drawing for as long as she can remember, and was regularly encouraged by her mother to keep exploring it. About 12 years ago, Sofie wanted to find a way to reproduce her drawings and also feature them on textiles; and this is where her journey into printmaking began. She comments; “At first I dove into screen printing, but after the birth of my first daughter I fell into a bit of a creative block and felt my work lacked something“. Sofie discovered a few relief printmakers on Instagram, and decided to give this intriguing technique a try; “I immediately felt this was for me, and never stopped making, practising, trying out different block materials, inks and papers”. The handmade character of each print, but also the time consuming bit of carving a block is what makes this technique so interesting for Sofie. She states; “It’s made my work better and is actually a huge help for my mental health. It takes up all my attention; I have to focus and that way my brain calms down.”
All of her prints are just one colour, mostly black printed on white. Some might consider this as a huge limitation, but Sofie loves creating a very rich image in one colour, solely by playing around with textures and details; “To me, this is just the same (or even better than) as having a huge set of colours to choose from”.
Inspiration for her prints comes from textures in nature, natural materials, and anything around her that has an interesting texture. Another aspect of Sofie’s work is story telling, for which she finds inspiration in (children’s) story books, fairy tales, and folklore, but also movies that tell surreal stories or portray someone’s rich imagination. “I think imagination is the most important part; use this as your guide and you will always have a unique piece of part as an outcome,” describes Sofie.
Most of the ideas for her woodcuts just pop up into her head at random moments, like right before falling asleep, while cooking dinner, or walking her kids to school. Sofie makes a miniature sketch of these ideas and then lets it sink in for a while, before deciding to go ahead with it. She’ll then work out a bigger sketch, in the actual size of the final print. Once happy with the sketch, she transfers it to the woodblock and starts carving.
“With the work I make, I think my main purpose is to express my imagination and make the viewer look, and then look a second time, and then keep them looking and discovering. Why is there an origami paper boat with a cat in it, why does that bird hold a key, what do those women feel about being attached to each other through their hair? I’m not telling you; you may decide for yourself what it’s about.”
Looking to the future, Sofie hopes to work on a black and white children’s picture book, create larger woodcut prints (the largest she has made so far is about A2), and explore multicolour block printing.
@sofie.tekent
www.sofietekent.nl
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